On the latest McClatchy report about Michael Cohen and Prague... dailycaller.com/2018/12/27/mic… @dailycaller
If accurate, it's a game changer and would be the strongest evidence yet of collusion between Trump associates and Russia. I will also personally have been very wrong on this particular topic. The main reason to take the report seriously...
...is that McClatchy and the 2 reporters are doubling down on their April 13 report. The story also has specific details about the alleged evidence that has been given to Mueller...Now time for the "but"....
The Dec. 27 report is basically a more detailed version of the April 13 report. And I wonder why it took 7 months for McClatchy to either obtain or report out the details of what information was given to Mueller.
As others, even Trump critics have noted, the sourcing is sketchy. "Four sources familiar" doesn't tell us if it's gov't officials, Michael Cohen associates, or even Fusion GPS.
There's also the circumstantial evidence undercutting the dossier's claims on Cohen/Prague: Cohen did not plead guilty to lying about Prague, even though he denied the trip in his congressional testimony; Lanny Davis still adamantly disputes the dossier...
WaPo's Greg Miller recently claimed that FBI and CIA sources do no believe the trip ever happened; Jake Tapper claimed on air on Jan. 10, 2017 that gov't sources said a different Cohen went to Prague
No other news outlets have corroborated the McClatchy stories, and Mueller's office issued a statement after the first story cautioning against believing stories with vague sourcing.
There's reason to believe that the McClatchy reporters have relied on Fusion GPS, which has a strong incentive to bolster the dossier. Glenn Simpson was out spreading a fake story about a conservative lawyer that these McClatchy reporters reported: dailycaller.com/2018/08/13/bru…
I'm not citing Cohen's passport because that always seemed like a weak defense. He could have entered Czech through other European countries without getting a passport stamp. Cohen's non-specific denials have always counted against him on this, imo.
