The Prague meeting seemed to be confirmed in April 2018 when an unidentified US Intelligence official leaked to two journalists -- Greg Gordon and Peter Stone -- that an unidentified East European intelligence agency had detected two events:
1) Cohen's cell-phone number pinging a cell tower in the Prague area, and
2) a Russian-language communication about Cohen visiting that area.
I will call this "the Double Detection".
The article by Gordon and Stone was published on April 13, 2018. The apparent reason for this leak was to justify to the public the FBI's raid on Michael Cohen's hotel room, apartment and law office that had been carried out on April 9. Since Cohen was the Vice President of The Trump Organization and also was President Trump's lawyer, the raid was sure to provoke public criticism. The leaker -- likely a high-ranking FBI official -- leaked this information in order to assure the public that the raid was not based entirely on Steele's Dossier.
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Since, however, this Michael Cohen never visited Prague, the Double Detection must have been staged in order to plant false evidence that he indeed was there. A device with his phone number pinged a Prague cell tower, and a Russian-language conversation was staged.
I speculate that the Double Detection was arranged by a group of persons who had been associated with the US Intelligence Community and now were working to elect Hillary Clinton. They knew that an East European intelligence agency would detect the two events and would, if asked, share those findings with US Intelligence. From there, the information might be leaked to the US electorate shortly before the Presidential election if a Trump victory seemed possible.
The Steele Dossier was part of a larger program to collect incriminating information about Trump and then to reveal that information to the electorate as necessary. In particular, the Dossier incriminated Trump in collusion with Russian Intelligence and mafias.
The first Dossier reports indicated that the key intermediary between Trump and Russian villains was Carter Page. In subsequent Dossier reports, the key intermediary became Paul Manafort, until Trump fired him from his campaign-manager position on about August 19, 2016. Then on October 16 -- about three weeks before Election Day -- Steele published his first Dossier report indicating that the ultimate intermediary would be Michael Cohen. As a close and long-time associate of Trump, Cohen was a much more impressive collusion culprit than Page or Manafort had been.
Although Cohen had not travled, worked and lived in Russia, Cohen had been involved in a project to develop a Trump Hotel in Moscow that might cause him to visit there for at least a few days in 2016. Since that project fell through, however, Clinton's secret group developed a scheme to place Cohen in at least East Europe, in at least a fictitious, secret situation.
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The following image shows the result of the YouGov/Economist opinion poll conducted during October 15-18, 2016 -- about the time when secret preparations were underway to cast Cohen as the new intermediary. Despite the "grab-them-by-the-pussy" scandal that had begun on October 7, Trump's support was holding steady at 38%, whereas Clinton's support was on a downward trajectory, declining from 44% to 42%. An upset victory by Trump or Clinton seemed increasingly plausible.
In this situation, Clinton might have to resort to revealing the Dossier to the electorate before Election Day, November 8. This revelation would be reinforced by leaks from the US Intelligence Community revealing that Cohen's presence had been detected in Prague, thus confirming the Dossier's reports about Cohen's role in the imaginary collusion.
Of course, Cohen would deny that he had visited Prague, but he would not be able to convince the public adequately until after Election Day.
Although Clinton had prepared this October Surprise -- the revelations of the Dossier and of the Double Detections -- she had become confident by the beginning of October that she would defeat Trump. The YouGov/Economist poll conducted during October 30 - November 1 found that she was leading him steadily by 46% to 43% among likely voters. Because of this confidence, Clinton did not resort to this October Surprise.
The Dossier remained secret until January 2017, and the Double Detection remained secret until April 2018. Keep in mind, though, that the Dossier and the Double Detection had been prepared for potential revelations in the last week of October or the first week of November 2016. The revelations did not happen only because a Clinton victory seemed certain.
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Plenty of US Intelligence Community officials were willing to deceive the US electorate in order to prevent Trump from winning an election. For example, here is a list of 50 such officials:
Jim Clapper, former director of national intelligence
Leon Panetta, former CIA director
John Brennan, former CIA director
Fingar, former National Intelligence Council chair
Rick Ledgett, former National Security Agency deputy director
John McLaughlin, former CIA acting director
Michael Morell, former CIA acting director
Mike Vickers, former defense undersecretary for intelligence
Doug Wise, former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director
Nick Rasmussen, former National Counterterrorism Center director
Russ Travers, former National Counterterrorism Center acting director
Andy Liepman, former National Counterterrorism Center deputy director
John Moseman, former CIA chief of staff
Larry Pfeiffer, former CIA chief of staff
Jeremy Bash, former CIA chief of staff
Rodney Snyder, former CIA chief of staff
Glenn Gerstell, former National Security Agency general counsel
David Priess, former CIA analyst and manager
Pam Purcilly, former CIA deputy director of analysis
Marc Polymeropoulos, former CIA senior operations officer
Chris Savos, former CIA senior operations officer
John Tullius, former CIA senior intelligence officer
David A. Vanell, former CIA senior operations officer
Kristin Wood, former CIA senior intelligence officer
David Buckley, former CIA inspector general
Nada Bakos, former CIA analyst and targeting officer
Patty Brandmaier, former CIA senior intelligence officer
James B. Bruce, former CIA senior intelligence officer
David Cariens, former CIA intelligence analyst
Janice Cariens, former CIA operational support officer
Paul Kolbe, former CIA senior operations officer
Peter Corsell, former CIA analyst
Brett Davis, former CIA senior intelligence officer
Roger Zane George, former national intelligence officer
Steven L. Hall, former CIA senior intelligence officer
Kent Harrington, former national intelligence officer
Don Hepburn, former national security executive
Timothy D. Kilbourn, former dean of CIA’s Kent School of Intelligence Analysis
Ron Marks, former CIA officer
Jonna Hiestand Mendez, former CIA technical operations officer
Emile Nakhleh, former director of CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program
Gerald A. O’Shea, former CIA senior operations officer
Nick Shapiro, former CIA deputy chief of staff
John Sipher, former CIA senior operations officer
Stephen Slick, former National Security Council senior director for intelligence programs
Cynthia Strand, former CIA deputy assistant director for global issues
Greg Tarbell, former CIA deputy executive director
David Terry, former National Intelligence Collection Board chairman
Greg Treverton, former National Intelligence Council chair
Winston Wiley, former CIA director of analysis
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Continued in Part 2
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