President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen is denying the latest report from McClatchy News Service that he traveled to the Prague in summer 2016 to collude with Russians on the U.S. presidential election.
Democratic-financed British ex-spy Christopher Steele wrote in his anti-Trump dossier that Cohen secretly went to the Czech capital and met with Vladimir Putin aides to arrange cash payments to Russian hackers.
Cohen has repeatedly denied he ever has been to Prague.
On Thursday, McClatchy wrote its second story saying that Cohen did make the trip. McClatchy said there is a brief cell tower ping from Mr. Cohen’s phone near Prague. McClatchy also reported that Russians talked about his trip in intercepted communications.
The news service said special counsel Robert Mueller has the evidence.
Cohen tweeted back Thursday: “I hear #Prague #CzechRepublic is beautiful in the summertime. I wouldn’t know as I have never been. #Mueller knows everything!”
In recent months, matters have soured between Mr. Trump and Cohen, since his longtime personal fixer pleaded guilty in the spring to campaign-finance violations and in November to lying to Congress. The two have since criticized one another publicly and Cohen, who is now cooperating with the Mueller prosecution, has little or no motivation to lie to cover up for the president.
McClatchy earlier this year wrote that Mr. Mueller has evidence of a Prague trip, which Cohen also denied.
No other news outlet or independent source has confirmed the McClatchy report.
The Prague trip scenario has been pushed for months by Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, who did opposition research for the Hillary Clinton campaign. He was hired post-election, as was Mr. Steele, by another research firm to keep investigating President Trump.
• Rowan Scarborough can be reached at rscarborough@washingtontimes.com.
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