DKos was started as a “reality based” community. But, a weakness of this community is that it is prone to “irrational exuberance” over the prospect of criminal conduct being proven against Republican figures. DKos is not alone in this, for eight years the conservative message boards were convinced that the same thing would happen to Democrats (and we still see that hope towards Clinton).
I fear that the Cohen story is starting to get that treatment here. Let’s break this down. McClatchy (not the NYT, WaPo, or other highly respected investigative journalists) is reporting that “investigators have traced evidence that Cohen entered the Czech Republic through Germany, apparently during August or early September of 2016.”
Read more here: www.mcclatchydc.com/...
Remember, Cohen denied this accusation when it first surfaced in the Steele Dossier. Some in the blogsphere have mocked the tweet he sent out denying the accusation which included a picture of the exterior of his passport. But, many here are forgetting that Cohen also let Buzzfeed photograph the interior of his passport in May of 2017. I’ve seen false reporting on liberal blogs that no one has seen Cohen’s passport interior, such as this article on Wonkette: wonkette.com/....
That reporting is not true. The published photos in Buzzfeed showed the following:
Upon entering the Schengen Area, visitors get a rectangular stamp with the date, a country code, their port of entry, and a symbol showing how they entered — such as an airplane or a train. In Cohen’s passport, that mark appears on page 17, with a date of July 9. The mark is too faint to be fully legible. The exit stamp, similar but with rounded edges, is also light, but the letters “cino” are legible, indicating he flew out of Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport in Rome. That stamp is dated July 17.
Cohen, 50, said he understands the scrutiny this will bring. He said credit card receipts would prove he stayed in Capri, an island off the Italian coast, but he declined to make those receipts available. Cohen was with family and friends, he said, including the musician and actor Steve Van Zandt.
Read more here: www.buzzfeed.com/...
That’s a pretty good explanation of the July trip to the Schengen Area. It is also a trip that does not correspond to the August-September 2016 time frame mentioned in the McClatchy report.
Cohen also told Buzzfeed that in late August he was visiting USC with his son, which was corroborated by social media pictures.
It is possible that Cohen could have had a second passport. But, he denies he did, and the DoJ could figure that out quickly. (And maybe they have — I am saying be cautious, not completely disregard).
So there is good reason to doubt the story about Cohen. Especially, the speculation that Cohen’s passport might show he was in the Schengen Area in the relevant time period. Be cautious. I’d hate to see another incident like Fitzmas.
UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING IMPORTANT COMMENT:
Benjamin Wittes, Editor-in-Chief at Lawfare, has posted a tweetstream that also emphasizes caution on this story:
The string concludes with:
From cityduck — Wittes also said:
1) The sourcing is relatively thin. It is sourced to two sources familiar with the matter, who are presumably not Mueller shop folks. It's not clear to me what the universe of people who would know this sort of thing from a distance looks like.
(2) The story does not, actually, say that Michael Cohen was, in fact, in Prague at the relevant time. It says that Mueller's investigation has developed some evidence that he was in Prague. It gives no sense of how much evidence or what type of evidence—or how credible it is.
Note how the story here hedges on this point, describing the confirmation of Cohen's presence in Prague only in hypothetical terms. The reporters are being careful not to say that Cohen was actually in Prague—merely that Mueller has developed some reason to doubt his denial.
(3) It's a little too good. The Prague meeting is part of the heart and soul of the Steele Dossier. Good intel analysts need to be skeptical of intel that perfectly supports their premises, particularly when it's a bit thin. Let's show that discipline here.
(4) It would be absolutely nuts for Cohen to have gone on a campaign predicated on his non-presence in Prague if he had, in fact, been in Prague in the fashion anything like what the Steele Dossier reports. Remember, he even sued Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS over the matter.
See complaint, p. 7, para 24. It is certainly possible that Cohen is a big enough idiot to sue a media organization—and thereby invite discovery—over his presence in Prague when he, had in fact, been there, but..