With The New York Times story about Michael Cohen and Felix Sater gaining more attention, Cohen has made an abrupt shift into damage control.
The Washington Post published a follow-up to the Times story about an hour ago. Most of it tracks with the Times reporting. But Cohen changed his story from what he’d told the Times. He told the Times that he received the ‘peace plan’ from Sater and the Ukrainian parliamentarian in a sealed envelope and delivered it to the White House. Now he claims that he received the envelope with the ‘peace plan’ but accepted it only as a courtesy and never did anything with it. The meeting, he now claims, lasted a mere 15 minutes.
From the Post …
But Cohen said he did not take the envelope to the White House and did not discuss it with anyone. He called suggestions to the contrary “fake news.”
“I acknowledge that the brief meeting took place, but emphatically deny discussing this topic or delivering any documents to the White House and/or General Flynn,” Cohen said. He said he told the Ukrainian official that he could send the proposal to Flynn by writing him at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The Times confirmed to the Post that it sticks by its story. “Mr. Cohen told The Times in no uncertain terms that he delivered the Ukraine proposal to Michael Flynn’s office at the White House. Mr. Sater told the Times that Mr. Cohen had told him the same thing,” Matt Purdy of the Times told the Post.
