News briefs

1.  Mueller has evidence that Michael Cohen did go to Prague:    McClatchy News Service (very reliable) reports that the Mueller investigation now has evidence placing Trump's fixer in Prague during late August or early September 2016.  Cohen has vociferously denied this in the past, going so far as to put out a copy of his passport to "prove" he had never been to Prague.    The reported evidence says Cohen flew into Germany, then could cross into the Czech Republic without having his passport stamped.

Why is this important?   It had been postulated that this was the Russian connection with the Trump campaign, involving either some monetary payoffs or plans for releasing the Clinton emails.   And it is one of the most specific and important claims in the Steele dossier that links the Trump campaign with Russia.  The dossier reports that a Kremlin insider had highlighted the importance of Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, in the secret liaison between Trump and the Russian leadership, especially since the departure of Manafort from the campaign.  Quoting from the controversial Steele dossier:

"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 Paul Manafort and Carter Page]."

Additions to the report in days following identify the meeting city as Prague and gave the name of the Russian official, as well as more specifics about the meeting.  Later additions added that topics of discussion had included how cash payments were to be made to hackers who had worked on breaking into the Clinton computer files and other issues involving covering up this operation.

Michael Cohen continues to deny that it ever happened, claiming that he was either in New York or in L.A. with his son during the time and has never been to Prague.   This is why this is so important.  If there is, in fact, evidence of a secret trip to Prague by Cohen, it confirms one more piece of the dossier and blows open the whole Russia collusion thing.    And, if he went to Prague on some unrelated or innocent mission, why has he been trying so hard to cover it up?   In other words, if the evidence is proven, then his actions point to guilt.

One more thing:   since this is being handled, not by Mueller, but by the federal prosecutor's office in New York, firing Mueller can't stop it.

2.  The British and French allies joined the U.S. planned attack of missile strikes against Syrian sites associated with its capability to use chemical weapons on its own people.   This was in retaliation to proven attacks a week ago in which many civilians died and many more were wounded.    A US general briefed reporters later and said that the strikes were "precise, overwhelming, and effective."  They hit every target and sent an unmistakable message to the Assad regime that use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.  Efforts were made to avoid civilian casualties, and so far none has been reported.  It was in the middle of the night;  building targets were work places that had been evacuated in advance.   Russia's initial reaction is to call for a UN resolution condemning the US attack, claiming that there was no chemical attack -- or, alternately, that it was staged by the British.  Russia's resolution failed to pass in the Security Council.

There is a good argument to be made -- as many in congress have -- against having made this attack.  Primarily the question is:   what is the overall plan in our Syria policy?   We have none.   Just before the chemical attack, Trump had told the military he wanted all our troops pulled out of Syria -- within days.   Which may have been the signal that let Syria feel they could get away with using chemicals again.  They say, correctly, that what we did won't likely accomplish anything.   Structures destroyed as easily rebuilt.   It will not diminish either Russian or Iranian assistance to the Assad regime.   So . . . what was it for?

As the New York Times reported, "even advocates of more aggressive intervention said that the attacks would mean little in the long run without a clear, comprehensive approach."

3.  Why did Trump wait almost a week after the Syrian chemical attack before ordering his "punishing" attack?   Several reasons, some good, some not.  The cynical one is that he wanted to give Russia enough time to get out of the way and to allow Syrian airplanes to be moved in and among Russian planes.

But let's go with the benefit of doubt that there were better reasons.   First, Trump was trying to get our allies France and the U.K. on board, which they finally did;  so that worked out.   Second, there was disagreement within the administration over how massive a strike should be, with Secretary of Defense Mattis wanting less and Trump's new, uber-hawk National Security Adviser John Bolton insisting on a "ruinous" strike.  How much did all the rest going on in Trump world affect the decision?  -- the Mueller investigation, the exposure of Trump secrets in Michael Cohen's records that are now in the hands of the FBI, as well as the growing number of members of congress demanding that he had to seek a new authorization from congress for any military attack on another country.    We are still operating on the authorization to retaliate to the 9/11 attack;  and this particular chemical attack on Assad's own people has nothing to do with ISIS or other groups even remotely connected with that.  So dealing with any and all of those would take time.

4.  The pardoning of Scooter Libby.   Libby was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff who was convicted of lying to cover up an attempt to obstruct justice in the destruction of CIA agent Valerie Plame's covert identify -- for political purposes.   Trump had never shown any interest.  So suddenly he pardons him.   It's impossible not to conclude that this was to send a message to his own aides and associates under scrutiny in the Mueller investigation:    stay strong;  don't talk, and I'll take care of you with a pardon later.    In fact, one of Trump's lawyers had been dangling the possibility of pardons to some of them already -- and that is on the list of areas being looked at for a case of obstruction of justice.

5.  Another revelation that caused quite a stir this week -- for a few hours -- was the explosive report that Michael Cohen often taped his telephone conversations, which opens the possibility that he has Trump on tape going back years concerning their financial dealings.   What could be worse than to have your fixer's recorded conversations with you in the hands of the prosecutor?

6.  We also have the request from Michael Cohen to the judge to let him go through the seized documents first and remove lawyer- client-privileged materials.  The reaction from most people was to laugh and dismiss such a request.   The fact is that most of what Michael Cohen does is not lawyer-work but fix-it work.  That is not privileged.   Cohen has a practice with essentially one client:  Donald Trump.   Plus a few others for whom he does similar kind of fix-it work.  He seems to be the go-to guy if you need to get a non-disclosure agreement, or if you need a lawyer to get money for you in exchange for a NDA.

7.  Oh, yes,  Somewhere in there, Paul Ryan dropped the bombshell that he was not going to run again in November.   So not only is another Republican seat open, but more importantly the Speaker of the House position is up for grabs, with the #2 Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and #3 Steve Scalise (R-LA) the assumed front runners.  But there's always the Freedom Caucus (Tea Party) to contend with.   Interesting reminder:    for the Speaker, the entire House membership votes.   So it's unlikely an ultra-conservative would get a majority with Democrats also casting nearly 45% of the vote.   That's if they vote now.   If they wait until the new congress convenes in January, and the Democrats have gained the majority, it will be a different picture.    Then the Republicans would only be voting on their minority leader, not the Speaker of the House, who would presumable be a Democrat.

What a week.   It began with the raid on Cohen's office and home on Monday and ended on Friday with the missile strikes on Syria.   In between .  . . well, there's all of this, plus a whole lot more.

Ralph