Michael Cohen's mobile phone data shows he was in Prague around time of Trump Russia meeting

A long-chewed-on mystery about Michael Cohen's activities in the Trump-Russia conspiracy may now be resolved, thanks to data leaked by Cohen's cellphone. Operational security will get you every time, dumb criminals.

McClatchy reports that a mobile phone traced to Donald Trumps former fixer and alleged lawyer Michael Cohen briefly sent some pings that ricocheted off cellular network towers around Prague, in late summer 2016, when Trump's presidential campaign was going bonkers.

Cohen's cellphone left an electronic record to support claims he met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter tell McClatchy.

This is a big deal.

According to the dossier, Michael Cohen met with Russian agents in Prague to discuss election help. No one could verify this claim. Now, cell phone signals put Cohen in Prague around the time the alleged meeting took place. Plot = thicker https://t.co/4qokyupTbM

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) December 27, 2018

From the story:

During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.

The phone and surveillance data, which have not previously been disclosed, lend new credence to a key part of a former British spys dossier of Kremlin intelligence describing purported coordination between Trumps campaign and Russias election meddling operation.

The dossier, which Trump has dismissed as a pile of garbage, said Cohen and one or more Kremlin officials huddled in or around the Czech capital to plot ways to limit discovery of the close liaison between the Trump campaign and Russia.