Special counsel Robert Mueller found that the two most dramatic claims in British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s now-infamous dossier likely lacked substance: that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen met with Putin operatives in Prague in the summer of 2016 and that the Russians obtained compromising material on Trump.
Mueller’s report confirmed that Cohen “had never traveled to Prague,” and referred to the existence of compromising tapes of Trump as an “unverified allegation.”
Because Steele’s dossier was used in applications for surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is inspecting FISA abuse, is reportedly focusing on Steele. Steele has declined to cooperate with the probe.
In his dossier, Steele claimed that a “Kremlin insider” provided him with a dramatic tale of Cohen’s meetings in Prague with Putin-linked operatives and foreign hackers. Cohen consistently denied the claims, Mueller noted.
Specifically, the Steele source claimed that Cohen may have met in Prague with Russian officials at a Russian-owned office, that the meeting was facilitated and may have been attended by “leading pro-Putin Duma figure” Konstantin Kosachev, and that Cohen discussed contingency plans with Kremlin representatives for covering up their tracks if Hillary Clinton won the election.
Mueller concluded that the meetings never happened.
McClatchy, which had reported that in April 2018 and December 2018 Cohen traveled to Prague, was forced to add an editor’s note to its pieces Thursday after the release of the Mueller report.
As for the infamous “pee tape” — the recording that Steele alleged Russians possessed, depicting Trump with prostitutes at a hotel in 2013 during a Miss Universe pageant in Moscow —Mueller indicated in a footnote that his team investigated it and found no evidence it exists.
Mueller recounts a similar claim about “tapes from Russia” brought to the attention of Cohen by Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze. Cohen received a text from Rtskhiladze in October 2016 about “compromising tapes of Trump rumored to be held by persons associated with the Russian real estate conglomerate Crocus Group,” which helped with the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Russia.
But, according to Mueller, what Rtskhiladze didn’t tell Cohen was that he’d also been “told the tapes were fake.”
Mueller says Cohen told Trump about Rtskhiladze’s claims. Thus, when then-FBI Director James Comey told Trump about the allegations on Jan. 6, 2017, it was at least the second time Trump was informed of the rumors.
Comey’s meeting with Trump was reported by the media on Jan. 10, 2017, and then BuzzFeed published Steele’s dossier later that day.
Steele compiled his dossier in the summer and fall of 2016. He was paid by Fusion GPS, which was funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. The dossier was used in applications presented before the FISA Court to surveil at least one Trump campaign associate, Carter Page.
Page was not charged with any crimes.
The Department of Justice inspector general’s office said last year that it would examine whether the Justice Department or FBI broke regulations or the law in the FISA applications related to Page.
The inspector general also stated it would review the relationships law enforcement had with Steele.
Redacted FBI records show that Steele had received payments from the FBI but was eventually cut off as a confidential human source.
Attorney General William Barr said he expects this investigation to finish by May or June.
