BuzzFeed is insisting on the accuracy of a recent article disputed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, which reported that President Trump asked Michael Cohen lie to Congress about their efforts to develop a Trump Tower Moscow.
“We’re being told to stand our ground. Our reporting is going to be borne out to be accurate, and we’re 100 percent behind it,” Anthony Cormier, one of two investigative reporters who worked on the story, told CNN in a Sunday interview.
Cormier, who was joined by BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith, said that the months-long reporting process involved “rigorous” vetting. The two anonymous federal law enforcement officials who served as BuzzFeed’s sources are “standing behind” their information, Cormier said.
The report, which detailed alleged conduct that Trump’s own attorney general nominee suggested would have constituted obstruction of justice by the president, dominated the news cycle on Friday. But on Friday evening, Mueller’s typically press-shy office released a rare statement taking issue with the story.
“Buzzfeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” Mueller spokesman Peter Carr said.
The statement did not specify which aspects of BuzzFeed’s article are “not accurate.”
BuzzFeed’s Smith told CNN he is “eager” to find that out, and that Jason Leopold, the other reporter behind the story, submitted a Freedom of Information Act requesting details on how the statement from Mueller’s office came together.
I think it’s possible for them both to be right.
Buzzfeed’s article might be “slightly inaccurate” in certain details, but not incorrect on the whole.
The OSC could be nuancing that statement on purpose. They never said the article was “wrong”. Simply “not accurate”, which to me equals, ‘generally correct with a few caveats’.
If that’s the extent of the difference, then I can understand Buzzfeed sticking to their story.
Bottom line, there is likely truth to the notion that Trump was involved in Cohen lying to Congress. To what degree remains uncertain, but the OSC didn’t say that notion was incorrect. Only that specific details were not accurate.
That implies there is still a huge hammer waiting to drop on this particular topic.
So we are now up to (checks notes) exactly zero Russiagate “bombshells” that panned out after further scrutiny. There are a billion reasons to oppose Trump, and Republican’ts in general, but being a Russian Secret Agent ain’t one of them. (And who in their right mind thinks that Blatant Braggart Donald Trump could keep a secret that yuuuuuuge???)
Since the Mueller group rarely (if ever???) comments on the investigation, I’m wondering why they chose to comment on this one.
To be sure, the wording is careful.
Of all the reporting that has been done to link the Orange Menace to serious allegations, is the BuzzFeed report the only one that has claimed [verifiable] sources?
Was it too much of a bombshell to let it “hang out there” and perhaps lead to calls for action (impeachment) that might jeopardize the investigation/indictment of even bigger crimes? (This is my hope, of course.) (Could an indictment lead directly to charges and an arrest? IANAL, obviously!)
The statement by DoJ seems calculated to make people shrug and move on without realizing that they did not deny anything about the gist of the BF article.
I don’t think he did.
“Russia, … hack into her emails,” for starters.
Really liked Josh’s post on this topic.
In particular this line,
“But certainly the post-2014 sanctions against Russia had to be lifted before the deal could be finalized. That is the central issue.”
The issues around whatever Cohen was directed to do will get sorted out over time.
There’s plenty that is damning that has already been admitted to.