I can say this....if you fly into any German airport (from a direct US flight)...you will encounter the German border patrol, and they will scan your passport. They have the record there of entry, plus they’d stamp the passport.
Now...if you flew via a friend’s private jet and landed at some lesser airfield...there’s a 50-50 shot that no scan was made of the passport.
The other problem here....how did he return to the US, if he was in Prague? Did he fly back from Germany to LA? He would have entered through LA’s border patrol group, and they would have scanned his passport.
The only other alternate way to make this work is some third-world passport that Cohen might have had, and used for his flights. Maybe that’s the whole angle to this.
Most hotels in Europe require you to give your passport, and they alert local police as to every guest staying in the hotel.
Here’s how he “secretly” went to Prague.
He crossed into Mexico illegally where he boarded a private jet and flew non-stop to some obscure private landing strip where no passport was ever checked. Then, on his way back, he flew back into Mexico to another obscure private landing strip where he was met by professional human smugglers and whisked back across the border.
/sarc
He flew back over Mexico where he parachuted out to avoid Mexican customs, and walked across the southern porous border with illegal immigrants. From there he obviously had his son pick him up to provide the alibi that he was visiting him there so his Prague visit went undetected. 8>) - (I don’t really need the sarcasm tag do I?)
Maybe he used Poppy’s SR-71.
“Now...if you flew via a friend’s private jet and landed at some lesser airfield...there’s a 50-50 shot that no scan was made of the passport.”
Nope.
You still need to go through customs regardless. I assure you if you did this it would be without a flight plan and a German fighter would be on your wingtip to find out who in the hell you are.
Did not happen.
I think what they are saying is he could have flown in and out of Rome, then gone to Prague Shengen-style.
You'll never make it as a creative writing reporter or FBI/DOJ guy if that's the best theory you can come up with.
To any of the DOJ-Media coup plotters it is obvious. Trump passed a Russian passport to Cohen that Vlad personally handed to him. Because, after all, as we've seen this weekend, Vlad and Trump are such close buddies.
“The other problem here....how did he return to the US, if he was in Prague?”
Easy to explain. He was with his son in LA. Excused himself for a moment. Satellite beam teleportation to Prague and back. Alibi(son) is none the wiser he was even gone.