If Cohen Was in Prague, Trump Will Be Removed

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/4/15/112743/253

If Cohen Was in Prague, Trump Will Be Removed
by BooMan
Sun Apr 15th, 2018 at 11:27:43 AM EST

snip//

I suppose some of you want to know why it will be so consequential if Cohen has been lying about traveling to Prague in 2016. I may write that piece tomorrow, but for today it should suffice that the central accusation of the Steele Dossier is that Cohen was the Trump’s campaign’s main contact with the Russians after Paul Manafort was fired, and that he went to Prague because Moscow would have been too obvious. While there, he colluded with the Russians on a host of issues, including on how to compensate Romanian hackers, how to manage the fallout from the Manafort flameout and how to explain Carter Page’s recent trip to Moscow.

According to the Kremlin insider, COHEN now was heavily engaged in a cover up and damage limitation operation in the attempt to prevent the full details of TRUMP’s relationship with Russia being exposed. In pursuit of this aim, COHEN had met secretly with several Russian Presidential Administration (PA) Legal Department officials in an EU country in August 2016. The immediate issues had been to contain further scandals involving MANNAFORT’s commercial and political role in Russia/Ukraine and to limit the damage arising from exposure of former TRUMP foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE’s secret meetings with Russian leadership figures in Moscow the previous month. The overall objective had been “to sweep it all under the carpet and make sure no connections could be fully established or proven.”

COHEN had been accompanied to Prague by 3 colleagues and the timing of the visit was either in the last week of August or the first week of September. One of their main Russian interlocutors was Oleg SOLODUKHIN operating under Rossotrudnichestvo cover. According to {redacted}, the agenda comprised questions on how deniable cash payments were to be made to hackers who had worked in Europe under Kremlin direction against the CLINTON campaign and various contingencies for covering up these operations and Moscow’s secret liaison with the TRUMP team more generally.

From the beginning, the central defense against these charges was that Cohen had not travelled to Prague and that he could prove it. He has not been able to prove it.

…Democratic investigators for the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, which are conducting parallel inquiries into Russia’s election interference, also are skeptical about whether Cohen was truthful about his 2016 travels to Europe when he was interviewed by the panels last October, two people familiar with those probes told McClatchy this week. Cohen has publicly acknowledged making three trips to Europe that year – to Italy in July, England in early October and a third after Trump’s November election. The investigators intend to press Cohen for more information, said the sources, who lacked authorization to speak for the record

One of the sources said congressional investigators have “a high level of interest” in Cohen’s European travel, with their doubts fueled by what they deem to be weak documentation Cohen has provided about his whereabouts around the time the Prague meeting was supposed to have occurred.

Trump was not a bystander in the cover story. He publicly claimed that when the Prague story first emerged he was suspicious enough to call Cohen into his office and demand that he produce his passport. He then claimed, falsely, that a different Michael Cohen had been at the meetings with the Russians, as if that would make any kind of sense.

Cohen could have gone to Prague for some innocent reason, but he would have explained his reasoning for making the trip in that case instead of concocting cover stories and claiming that he was in Los Angeles during the times in question.

If he was in Prague, he was there for the reasons the Steele dossier said he was there. And if that is the case, then the case for collusion is proven beyond any shadow of a doubt.

[oberliner]

1. What is this website?

Like a Daily Kos offshoot?

[Cirque du So-What]

2. I've seen it cited numerous times on DU

but I've never visited. If a hinky story were referenced, I probably would have remembered.

[tblue37]

13. Martin Longman is the web editor and a writer for the liberal "Washington Monthly."

He is VERY good in his analysis of what goes on in politics. He is trustworthy.

[Cirque du So-What]

14. Good to know. Thanks!

Gawd, I've gotten lazy when it comes to researching writers. There was a time when I would go the extra mile to investigate a reporter's bona fides. If someone like myself, a self-confessed news junkie, thinks he doesn't have the time, how can we expect a generally incurious populace to follow through on verifying news sources?

[erronis]

31. I hear you. But it used to be we had reputable sources for additional information.

Now the "google" model of searching for anything comes up with a strange mixture of possibly-useful all the way to w-t-f, with the latter taking precedence.

So much news research is now conducted by finding other sources/quotes that are easily available. I'm actually old enough to remember going into the print archives (actual newsprint) looking for published material. And the printed encyclopedias, OMG!

[BobTheSubgenius]

20. That IS good to know!

I'll check it out, now that I know of it, and maybe add it to my rotation.

[tblue37]

21. Booman Tribune is one of my favorite analysis reads. nt

[Little Star]

25. +1

[babylonsister]

4. I have been snatching

stuff from Booman for years. One man's educated opinion with citations.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Booman is linked on DU's main page as one of the progressive Blog sites

and has been quoted quite a bit over the years on DU although not so much recently.

[oberliner]

57. Thanks

Apologies for my ignorance about the site - good stuff there.

[BumRushDaShow]

59. I was actually surprised

that after years and many requests, Skinner and crew finally updated the sites on the front page because many have come and gone (although I know some are no longer active/maintained but are archived for posterity)!

[Girard442]

6. I read Booman on a regular basis.

He's on my good list, along with Josh Marshall and Digby.

[dpibel]

12. Wow. Two minutes.

Sure a good thing we've got you to keep those credibility issues front and center. Quickly, too.

[orleans]

18. lol n/t

[oberliner]

58. Looks pretty credible to me

Not sure I had seen it before, though - but clearly has a good reputation among DUers. Don't know how I missed it over the years.

[Denzil_DC]

37. Booman Tribune has been around for many years.

As the (now slightly quaint) visual format suggests, it did originally spin off from Kos, but that's where the resemblance and relationship ends.

I may not always agree with Martin Longman (a.k.a. Booman), but I always treat what he has to say with a great deal of respect. If he's going as far in his statements as in the OP, then I sit up and take notice.

[Cheviteau]

48. Been Reading Booman For Years

Those of you not familiar with him should make it a point to check him out.

[oberliner]

56. Cool - thanks for the info

It's an interesting site.

[CrispyQ]

3. Did Trump really do this?

He then claimed, falsely, that a different Michael Cohen had been at the meetings with the Russians, as if that would make any kind of sense.

[unc70]

7. Yes Trump did

According to yesterday's Washington Post:

The day after Cohen’s tweet, Trump held a news conference.

“He brings his passport to my office,” the then president-elect said in response to a question. “I say, ‘Hey, wait a minute.’ He didn’t leave the country. He wasn’t out of the country. They had Michael Cohen of the Trump Organization was in Prague. It turned out to be a different Michael Cohen. It’s a disgrace what took place. It’s a disgrace and I think they ought to apologize to start with Michael Cohen.”

[CrispyQ]

10. And the republican controlled Congress is okay with this man having the nuke codes.

[vlyons]

22. They are Fascists

All they care about is money and the power to keep making money

[Doodley]

36. Michael Cohen was not out of the country and Trump didn't know anything about

Stormy Daniels. The boy who cried wolf told so many lies, only the stupid ones continued to believe him.

[calimary]

55. Well, sheesh - almost literally EVERY sentence he tweets or utters is a lie.

Doesn't seem to make any difference what it's about. He WILL lie about it. He can be COUNTED ON to lie about it.

That's the one thing about this thieving, cheating, vainglorious bastard does most often. More than stealing and more than cheating. More than eating. Or sleeping. More than the minutes he spends watching TV. More than even burping or farting.

[Greybnk48]

8. K&R n/t

[PSPS]

9. It's an opinion site, but here's what it's based on...

The source story is here:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html

[Cosmocat]

11. Whoever wrote the piece, 45 is not getting "removed"

At least before he is up for re-election, unless the midterms result in a the greatest whitewash in electoral history - not just the House flipping, but somehow the night ending with Ds having 70+ senate seats (cause ain't a single GD republican senator going to vote to prosecute impeachment and you know there will be a few Ds without a spine) ...

[Nitram]

15. Cosmocat, I'm puzzled by your use of "whitewash", which usually means a coverup.

Aren't you referring to a turnaround, shellacking, reversal, overturn, victory, or something like that?

[Cosmocat]

29. Whitewash

a victory in a game in which the loser scores no points.
synonyms: walkover, rout, landslide; More

[Nitram]

30. I'll be damned! I just learned something new. Thanks, Cosmocat.

[quartz007]

28. You seem to know the facts!

Only the US Senate has authority under constitution to remove a sitting president. SCOTUS can't, Justice can't, FBI can't. Military can remove anyone, but first there has to be a successful coup. And the senate needs 2/3 vote to remove.
Facts are a bitch!

So....turn congress blue in big numbers in November. It is the only chance to remove Rump.

[reACTIONary]

52. Not that it's likely, but....

,... the cabinate can remove an incapacitated president. "Incapacitated" is not explicitly defined.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[Scruffy1]

62. I think he will.

I know th Senate won't do it, but I think the Republican party will to save it's ass. He will resign under heavy pressure or threat of long jail time and maybe the threat of a pardon. I betting that some felonious evidence besides the Russian stuff will come out in the investigation like bribery. I find it hard to believe that he has not broken various and sundry laws in his business dealings. They already have their mega donor tax break and don't need squat from him so he is now expendable. So we will get to here the standard others did but didn't get caught for the rest of our lives.

[Cosmocat]

69. Doubtful

1) The next time the Rs stand up to him will be the first. There is reason for this. The decades of skull fucking the base has led to them being completely detached from reality and primed for an authoritarian leader - which they now have. Any R with even the first bit of backbone isn't standing up to him, they are quitting their jobs, for the same reason - they know they can't stand up to him because their lunatic base will kill them in a primary.

These scumbags fear one thing more than anything this point - their primary voters. So, no, they are not going to stand up to him.

2) His leaving office does NOTHING to stem any potential legal issues, in fact, his best chance to thwart them is while he is in office - using his power as POTUS, the pardon, etc.

3) He isn't going to admit defeat by quitting.

[NewJeffCT]

63. If Democrats get the majority in at least one House

I think you'll see a big change in the attitudes of Congress - starting in January and February of 2019, you'll see people like Jared Kushner, Don Jr, Eric Trump, Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, Carter Page, Corey Lewandowski, etc testify live and in public on TV and get embarrassed by sharp questions from the likes of Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Ted Lieu, etc.

At least one of those people will have some sort of huge "You can't handle the truth" sort of breakdown live on TV that will be too fast for Fox News and the Russian bots online to spin quickly. Republicans supported Nixon throughout Watergate until the Saturday Night Massacre and the tapes came out - then the tide turned swiftly.

[Cosmocat]

70. It isn't 1970

Rs were mearly douchbag partisans back then, and integrity was not genetically ripped from their DNA.

Rs today are completely souless, immoral scumbags.

If Ds get the House and initiate hearings, Rs will NOT go "gee golly, we need to back off now ..."

They now know one thing, and one thing only - attack.

They will scream, yell ... They will NOT throw 45 under the bus, you will see at most a handful of Rs in office in DC who break ranks. They will go into full on partisan witchhunt victim mode.

[bucolic_frolic]

16. It all makes sense if ... "a different Michael Cohen had been at the meetings with the Russians"

There it is, in plain sight, totally impossible but totally true? If a guy was sent to settle things in Prague, would the Russians recognize the real Michael Cohen? If they sent an impostor to consummate the dirty work, would the Russians know who he was?

"a different Michael Cohen" could be a substitute Michael Cohen. Could even be a double. Don't forget, this is the world of espionage. Tricks are meant to happen.

[erronis]

32. Or maybe a different Prague? Smiley (George) would approve.

If only this spy-craft was just a fun read of literature and not a deadly serious activity that can have lots of unintended consequences.

[BumRushDaShow]

60. Just a note, the original story over a year ago was this

(January 2017)

Cohen strongly denied the charges Tuesday, saying that he had never been to Prague. The Washingtonian reported that two sources at the University of Southern California confirmed that Cohen was in Los Angeles at the time he was supposed to have been in Europe.

Tapper seemingly confirmed Cohen’s story. “People tried to run that down and concluded it was a different Michael Cohen. It was a Michael Cohen with a passport from another country, same birth year, different birth date,” he said.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/report-intelligence-community-believes-it-was-a-different-michael-cohen-who-visited-prague/

If there were "two sources" in CA, one wonders if they were subpoenaed.

[Pepsidog]

17. Prove Cohen went to Prague and and collusion deniers should be run out of the country. Cohen going

Prague is almost as good as a confession of guilt and I suspect that the vast majority of the country will see Trump for the Traitor he is. Any of his supporters remaining should be marginalized and ignored. I don’t want to see nut jobs on MSNBC defending Trump.

[Botany]

19. I went and bought a bottle of sparkling wine last week because I think Trumps days are #ed.

[spooky3]

23. As Jill Wine Banks noted, if there is proof he WAS in

Prague, that destroys his credibility on many matters, because if you lie once, she won’t believe other statements.

[Stallion]

24. WE GOT HIM!!! (or maybe not)

[quartz007]

26. I was in Prague!

When I missed a connecting flight at Prague airport, I checked into a hotel in Prague, and took a tour of Lidice cuz I had several hours to kill. But did not run into Cohen.

[superpatriotman]

35. So, no collusion?

[quartz007]

42. Right, no collusion whatsoever

between me and Cohen lol

[RandySF]

27. What fantasy world do they live in?

Even if the House were to impeach Trump in 2019, it takes a 2/3 majority of the Senate. No Republican will vote to remove him.

[progressoid]

33. Removed?

Hyperbolic, wishful thinking.

[Historic NY]

34. Prague Spring, with the whiff of collusion in the air.

[Initech]

38. Honestly the only way Trump and the republicans are going to be removed is by force.

Voting them out didn't work. Reasoning with them didn't work. If force is what it takes I'm all for signing up for the resistance army. These fucking assholes must be removed from power. They won't go down without a fight.

[bdamomma]

49. Well we owe them nothing

so be it if there is a confrontation, they haven't done anything except for fleecing and pillaging the US and it's people. Greedy bastards.

[markpkessinger]

51. To be fair . . .

. . . we haven't actually tried "voting them out," at least not in any serious way. What do I mean by that? It's like this: Democrats need to find a way to appeal to people outside our own base voter, and that means, most particularly, unaffiliated voters, who are the single largest bloc of voters in the U.S.

So what did we do in 2016? We nominated a candidate who, while unquestionably qualified and competent for the job and very popular among the party faithful, had almost zero appeal outside of the party, and in fact had very high negative ratings among independent voters. Especially in a year when our opponent who is (whatever his many incompetencies and weaknesses) is very skilled and experienced in manipulating the media for his own benefit and who has no shame ab out exploiting some of the worst aspects of our culture -- racism, xenophobia, etc. -- in order to win.

We can deny this, we can rail against the injustice and unfairness of it, but at the end of the day, the reality remains.

[Jim Lane]

39. No, Trump will just throw him under the bus.

"When this accusation first surfaced, I demanded an explanation. Michael Cohen personally assured me that it was false. What I did not realize was that, under the psychological pressure created by Obama's illegal spying on my campaign, Mike, previously a person of high moral standards and unquestioned integrity, had fallen prey to the temptation to bend the law and then to deceive me about it. His fall is another legacy of the Obama administration. Sad!"

The average word length is probably too high for an actual Trump statement but that would be the gist of it.

[babylonsister]

41. Michael Cohen has a mouth, and

a family, and I am sure an ass, his own, he'd like to save if it comes to that. And it will probably come to that.

[quartz007]

43. Cohen has said he will take a bullet for tRump!

If his ass goes to prison, there is little doubt in my mind tRump will feed his family. My guess is Flynn, Papadopolous, Manafort, Gates, etc are quite susceptible to turning against tRump when facing prison. Cohen is one person who won't.

[babylonsister]

44. Talk is really cheap. nt

[quartz007]

45. We will soon find out if my hypothesis is correct..nt

[Jim Lane]

46. Cohen, by ratting out Trump, could convince all fair-minded people.

But all fair-minded people are already convinced that Trump is a con man and a liar, with the only uncertainty being as to the details (including specifics of criminal statutes). Trump can brazenly deny what Cohen says. That will provide enough of a fig leaf for the gutless Republicans who won't vote to impeach and convict.

The only wild card is this story about tapes. If the nation is so fortunate as to find that Cohen has incriminating audiotapes of Trump, and if technical experts can rule out any plausible claim of falsification, then Trump would be in trouble.

[orangecrush]

40. K&R!

[trueblue2007]

47. REMOVED - Trump ? Really? Best news I have heard all day.

Impeach or he will resign?

[bdamomma]

50. tRump probably chain himself to

White House, he's a SOB.

[LeftInTX]

53. Who's gonna remove him?

[babylonsister]

54. I imagine there are a lot of people who would

love the honor.

[oberliner]

61. Are any of them Congressional Republicans?

Because we need a whole bunch of them in the Senate.

[PDittie]

66. The correct answer is nobody

Nobody with the authority to do so, that is. Not even Nancy Pelosi (according to Nancy Pelosi):

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/03/pelosi-isnt-calling-for-trumps-impeachment/



But hey, maybe she'll change her mind ...

[Botany]

64. McClatchy: Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier

But investigators have traced evidence that Cohen entered the Czech Republic through Germany, apparently during August or early September of 2016 as the ex-spy reported, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is confidential. He wouldn’t have needed a passport for such a trip, because both countries are in the so-called Schengen Area in which 26 nations operate with open borders. The disclosure still left a puzzle: The sources did not say whether Cohen took a commercial flight or private jet to Europe, and gave no explanation as to why no record of such a trip has surfaced.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html#storylink=cpy

[YOHABLO]

67. Had to be a private jet. Commercial would have been too traceable. I really don't know.

[Botany]

68. The train from Berlin to Prague takes 5 hours w/no pass port stamp

http://www.raileurope.com/train-tickets/journeys/article/berlin-prague?cmpid=PSN020401&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIiLn90Yy_2gIVg4uzCh30lAUKEAAYASAAEgJ3L_D_BwE

Ivanka and Jared were in Europe @ that time too.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=10492369

[NewJeffCT]

71. yes

you're correct. Cohen was in Europe several times and could have traveled to meet the Russians each time in Prague by just going by train.

[rtracey]

65. hmmmm

ennnnnnnnk....wrong, but lets try again.... really? removed? by this congress?