TPM: "What Happened to the Michael Cohen Ukraine Dossier?"

An article from early June that may explain why Trump's attorney Micheal Cohen has "lawyered up."

----
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/what-happened-to-the-michael-cohen-ukraine-dossier

What Happened to the Michael Cohen Ukraine Dossier?
By Josh Marshall Published JUNE 2, 2017 10:54 AM


Sometimes the importance, import and context of a story is only revealed by subsequent events. The Michael Cohen ‘peace plan’ story from early February is one of those cases. As Allegra Kirkland explains here, back in early February, Cohen and mafia-linked Trump Organization associate Felix Sater met at the Loews Regency hotel in Manhattan with Andrii Artemenko, a Trumpish, pro-Russian Ukrainian parliamentarian to discuss a ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine. The story emerged in mid February and received a decent amount of attention. But key facts look quite different after what we learned during the consequential month of May.

Artemenko allegedly gave Cohen a package of paper documents to hand deliver to Michael Flynn. Cohen said he did so, though he later denied doing so and ran through several contradictory stories about what he did with the dossier before refusing to discuss it anymore. Almost certainly he hand delivered it just as Artemenko asked and as he said he did in the initial interviews.

The headlines referred to these documents as a ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine. But getting a bit less attention in the original reporting was the fact that the dossier also purportedly included damaging information about the leaders of the government of Ukraine. All the cloak and dagger activity over the ‘peace plan’ never made a great deal of sense since the plan was essentially this: Russia gets out of eastern Ukraine and the US lifts all sanctions, a message simple enough to be delivered in a Fortune Cookie, and about as obvious. It’s been the obvious plan for pro-Russian advocates since 2014. It doesn’t require a packet of papers or a personal meeting.

Now, here’s the key. Artemenko brought these physical documents from Ukraine to New York, arranged a meeting with Cohen and asked him to hand deliver them to Mike Flynn, the President’s top foreign policy advisor. In the early 21st century there are many easier ways to send information. There’s email. There are phones. There’s old fashioned mail. There’s FedEx. There are of course also conventional diplomatic channels. Hand delivery of physical documents is certainly the most cumbersome option. But it is also extremely secure.

<much more at link, including analysis>