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The Dossier report that Christopher Steele wrote on October 18, 2016, did not indicate any knowledge of Michael Cohen visiting Prague. However, the report that Steele wrote on the very next day -- October 19 -- begins to claim some such knowledge. In this new report, though, Steele apparently knows only that the visit happed somewhere in the European Union (EU). (I have added emphasis.)
COMPANY INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2016/135
RUSSIA/US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF TRUMP LAWYER, COHEN IN SECRET LIASON WITH THE KREMLIN
Summary
– Kremlin insider outlines important role played by lawyer COHEN in secret liaison with Russian leadership
– COHEN engaged with Russians in trying to cover up scandal of MANAFORT and exposure of PAGE and meets Kremlin officials secretly in the EU in August in pursuit of this goal
– These secret contacts continue but are now farmed out to trusted agents in Kremlin-linked institutes so as to remain “plausibly deniable” for Russian regime
– Further confirmation that sacking of IVANOV and appointments of VAINO and KIRIYENKO linked to need to cover up Kremlin’s TRUMP support operation
Detail
Speaking in confidence to a longstanding compatriot friend in mid-October 2016, a Kremlin insider highlighted the importance of Republican presidential candidate Donald TRUMP’s lawyer, Michael COHEN, in the ongoing secret liaison relationship between the New York tycoon’s campaign and the Russian leadership. COHEN’s role had grown following the departure of Paul MANNAFORT as campaign manager in August 2016. Prior to that MANNAFORT had led for the TRUMP side.
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 “to sweep it all under the carpet and make sure no connections could be fully established or proven”
Things had become even “hotter” since August on the TRUMP-Russia track. According to the Kremlin insider, this had meant that direct contact between the TRUMP team and Russia had been farmed out by the Kremlin to trusted agents of influence working in pro-government policy institutes like that of Law and Comparative Jurisprudence. COHEN however continued to lead for the TRUMP team.
Referring back to the (surprise) sacking of Sergei IVANOV as Head of PA in August 2016, his replacement by Anton VAINO and the appointment of former Russian premier Sergei KIRIYENKO to another senior position in the PA, the Kremlin insider repeated that this had been directly connected to the TRUMP support operation and the need to cover up now that it was being exposed by the USG and in the western media.
Company Comment
The Kremlin insider was unsure of the identities of the PA officials with whom COHEN met secretly in August, or the exact date/s and locations of the meeting/s. There were significant internal security barriers being erected in the PA as the TRUMP issue became more controversial and damaging. However s/he continued to try to obtain these.
19 October 2016
In regard to the EU meeting (still not a Prague meeting), Steele's source of information seems to be a person employed in the Russian Government's Presidential Administration (PA). In fact, the CIA had recruited such a person as an agent -- Oleg Smolenkov.
Now I will speculate about this situation. In order to simplify my explanation, I will use a name "Mike Cohen". When I write "Michael Cohen", I mean the person who worked as Donald Trump's lawyer. When I write "Mike Cohen", I mean another person, who was not Trump's lawyer and who visited Prague in late August 2016.
I speculate that Steele's October 18 report about Michael Cohen had been delivered immediately to FBI Counterintelligence. Within hours, someone there searched an NSA database for information about Cohen and found that Mike Cohen had visited Prague in August 2016. The FBI searcher thought mistakenly that this Mike Cohen was Michael Cohen.
The mere fact that Cohen was in Prague did not, however, incriminate him. Cohen had to be placed in the same place and time as some relevant Russian officials. After all, the actual meeting might have taken place in, say, Dresden, Germany, or Linz, Austria.
Therefore, Steele still was not informed definitely on October 19 that Michael Cohen had met with some Russian officials in, specifically, Prague.
FBI Counterintelligence did find in a CIA report, based on Smolenkov's information, that some PA officials had traveled to the European Union in mid-August. Perhaps Smolenkov even provided a detail that connected this visit to Paul Manafort.
Steele's October 19 Dossier report seems to indicate that Michael Cohen had traveled to the European Union in late August because Manafort had been fired from Trump's campaign staff. Manafort had been fired on about August 17. In place of Manafort, therefore, Cohen went on a planned trip to Prague in late August 2016.
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In the following days, FBI Counterintelligence was not able to place the traveling PA officials in Prague when Mike Cohen was thought to be there. The best that FBI Counterintelligence was able to do was to place some other traveling Russian officials in Prague -- officials from another, "parastatal" organization, Rossotrudnichestvo. Accordingly, Steele was advised to write in his October 20 report that those "parastatal" officials had met with Cohen secretly on behalf of the PA officials whom FBI Counterintelligence could not place in Prague.
COMPANY INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2016/136
RUSSIA/US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: FURTHER DETAILS OF TRUMP LAWYER COHEN’S SECRET LIAISON WITH THE KREMLIN
Summary
– Kremlin insider reports TRUMP lawyer COHEN’s secret meeting/s with Kremlin officials in August 2016 was/were held in Prague
– Russian parastatal organisation Rossotrudnichestvo used as cover for this liaison and premises in Czech capital may have been used for the meeting/s
– Pro-Putin leading Duma figure, KOSACHEV, reportedly involved as “plausibly deniable” facilitator and may have participated in the August meeting/s with COHEN
Detail
Speaking to a compatriot and friend on 19 October 2016, a Kremlin insider provided further details of reported clandestine meeting/s between Republican presidential candidate, Donald TRUMP’s lawyer Michael COHEN and Kremlin representatives in August 2016. Although the communication between them had to be cryptic for security reasons, the Kremlin insider clearly indicated to his/ her friend that the reported contact/s took place in Prague, Czech Republic.
Continuing on this theme, the Kremlin insider highlighted the importance of the Russian parastatal organisation, Rossotrudnichestvo, in this contact between TRUMP campaign representative/s and Kremlin officials. Rossotrudnichestvo was being used as cover for this relationship and its office in Prague may well have been used to host the COHEN / Russian Presidential Administration (PA) meeting/s. It was considered a “plausibly deniable” vehicle for this, whilst remaining entirely under Kremlin control.
The Kremlin insider went on to identify leading pro-PUTIN Duma figure, Konstantin KOSACHEV (Head of the Foreign Relations Committee) as an important figure in the TRUMP campaign-Kremlin liaison operation. KOSACHEV, also “plausibly deniable” being part of the Russian legislature rather than executive, had facilitated the contact in Prague and by implication, may have attended the meeting/s with COHEN there in August.
Company Comment
We reported previously, in our Company Intelligence Report 2016/135 of 19 October 2016 from the same source, that COHEN met officials from the PA Legal Department clandestinely in an EU country in August 2016. This was in order to clean up the mess left behind by western media revelations of TRUMP ex-campaign manager MANAFORT’s corrupt relationship with the former pro-Russian YANUKOVYCH regime in Ukraine and TRUMP foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE’s secret meetings in Moscow with senior regime figures in July 2016. According to the Kremlin advisor, these meeting/s were originally scheduled for COHEN in Moscow but shifted to what was considered an operationally “soft” EU country when it was judged too compromising for him to travel to the Russian capital.
20 October 2016
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After that October 20 Dossier report, the next known report is dated December 13, 2016. Some of this report has been redacted in accordance with an agreement with Alexey Gubarev. Gubarev had sued Steele for writing in his blog that Gubarev was involved in computer-hacking. Gubarev lost his lawsuit, but he did obtain voluntary agreements to redact the Dossier passages that accused Gubarev. (I have not been able to find the pre-redaction texts.)
From the context of the redactions, it seems that Steele indicated that Gubarev allegedly had told someone that Cohen was accompanied by three "colleagues" when he attended the Prague meeting, where the agenda included discussions about computer-hacking.
The addition of the three colleagues to the Dossier story apparently caused a chronology problem. The Dossier does not name the three colleagues, but FBI Counterintelligence must have known their identities. The chronology problem was that FBI Counterintelligence was able to place the three colleagues in Prague only in early September -- not in late August.
COMPANY INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2016/166
FURTHER DETAILS OF SECRET DIALOGUE BETWEEN TRUMP CAMPAIGN TEAM, KREMLIN, AND ASSOCIATED HACKERS IN PRAGUE
Summary
– TRUMP’s representative COHEN accompanied to Prague in August/September 2016 by 3 colleagues for secret discussions with Kremlin representatives and associated operators/hackers
– Agenda included how to process deniable cash payments to operatives; contingency plans for covering up operations; and action in event of a election victory
– Some further details of Russian representatives/operatives involved; Romanian hackers employed; and use of Bulgaria as bolt hole to ‘lie low’
– Anti-CLINTON hackers and other operatives paid by both TRUMP team and Kremlin, but with ultimate loyalty to Head of PA, and his successor/s
Detail
We reported previously (2016/135 and /136) on secret meeting/s held in Prague, Czech Republic in August 2016 between then Republican presidential candidate Donald TRUMP’s representative, Michael COHEN and his interlocutors from the Kremlin working under cover of Russian NGO Rossotrudnichestvo
[REDACTED BY BUZZFEED NEWS] provided further details of these meeting/s and associated anti-CLINTON /Democratic Party operations. 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 BY BUZZFEED NEWS] 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.
[REDACTED BY THE MOSCOW PROJECT] were significant players in this operation. In Prague, COHEN agreed contingency plans for various scenarios to protect the operation, but in particular what was to be done in the event that Hillary CLINTON won the presidency. It was important in this event that all cash payments owed were made quickly and discreetly and that cyber and other operators were stood down / able to go effectively to ground to cover their traces. (We reported earlier that the involvement of political operatives Paul MANAFORT and Carter PAGE in the secret TRUMP-Kremlin liaison had been exposed in the media in the run-up to Prague and that damage limitation of these also was discussed by COHEN with the Kremlin representatives).
In terms of practical measures to be taken, it was agreed by the two sides in Prague to stand down various “Romanian hackers” (presumably based in their homeland or neighbouring eastern Europe) and that other operatives should head for a bolt-hole in Plovdiv, Bulgaria where they should “lay low”. On payments, IVANOV’s associate said that the operatives involved had been paid by both TRUMP’s team and the Kremlin, though their orders and ultimate loyalty lay with IVANOV, as Head of the PA and thus ultimately responsible for the operation, and his designated successor/s after he was dismissed by president PUTIN in connection with the anti-CLINTON operation in mid August.
13 December 2016
Thus, on December 13, 2016, FBI Counterintelligence still had not realized that the person who had visited Prague in August and/or September 2016 was Mike Cohen -- not the Michael Cohen who worked as Trump's lawyer.
On April 9, 2018 -- about sixteen months after that last Dossier report -- the FBI raided Michael Cohen's hotel room, home, law firm and safes -- still searching for proof that the Dossier's false statements about him were true.
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Continued in Part 4
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