Donald Trump attorney, accused of negotiating Russian blackmail, was colluding with Michael Flynn
Now that Donald Trump’s National Security Michael T. Flynn has resigned this week amid the revelation that he colluded with the Russian government before and after election day, it brings into sharper focus everything – and everyone – who has also been accused of having been a part of Trump’s Russia scandal. One of them is Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, who was accused the famous Russia dossier of playing a major role in the conspiracy to rig the election. And now he’s been confirmed to have been working with Flynn on Russia prior to Flynn’s resignation.
This new revelation requires some prior context. Shortly before inauguration day, a Trump-Russia dossier assembled by a former MI6 agent was leaked publicly. That dossier consisted of thirty-five pages of accusations and assertions – not all of them provable – about how Russia rigged the election for Donald Trump, and how Trump was supposedly in on it. One of those claims was that Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen traveled to Prague before the election to meet with Russian government representatives, in order to negotiate the terms of the “pee pee tape” blackmail material Russia was holding on Trump.
Cohen has firmly denied this claim, and it never has been proven. But it’s notable that his name is once again being connected to the Trump-Russia story, and this time in a way that is verifiable. One week before Michael Flynn unexpectedly resigned, Cohen hand delivered a proposal to Flynn’s office which laid out how Donald Trump should go about lifting sanctions on Russia. In other words, as the New York Times is reporting, Cohen was trying to collude with Flynn to convince Trump to soften American policy toward Russia.
There is nothing illegal in and of itself about delivering a policy proposal to the National Security Adviser, or trying to convince him to lean on the president to enact it. But it does raise a new round of questions. Michael Cohen previously insisted he had no connection with Russia, so why was he involved in this? More specifically, why was he leaning on Flynn, who is known to be compromised by Russia, to do push a proposal which was little more than a tailor made gift to Russia? And most importantly, was Cohen doing this under instruction from Russia? Contribute to Palmer Report
