Trump slams bombshell report that claimed he told Cohen to LIE to Congress
The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has called the bombshell BuzzFeed report claiming President Donald Trump told his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress false, and Trump has also fired back.
'Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited "Dossier," paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based!' he posted late Friday night.
'A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!'. He then followed that up by tweeting: 'Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!'.
The President's response comes after the special counsel's office issued a rare public statement disputing the accuracy of the news report saying that Trump told his personal attorney Cohen to lie to Congress.
The special counsel's spokesman Peter Carr says: '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'.
Meanwhile Ben Smith, editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed, tweeted: 'In response to the statement tonight from the Special Counsel's spokesman: We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.
Making his way around to CNN's Anderson Cooper, Smith further requested clarification from the special counsel's office and defended his reporters, Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier.
'We're really confident in these specific sources and in the stories these reporters told,' Smith said after referencing two unidentified law enforcement officials from the original story that reported Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow real estate project.
Smith also called into MSNBC to speak with Chris Hayes saying 'the special counsel issued this very vague statement, we are eager to know what he's talking about'. The statement by Robert Mueller's office on Friday night doesn't cite any specific errors.
Trump had earlier Friday evening spent several hours retweeting several supporters. Shortly after the statement from Mueller's office was released Trump retweeted: 'Sadly so many will never get the memo that it was fake!'.
Buzzfeed's bombshell report claimed the president directed Cohen to lie in his testimony to Congress about a Trump Organization tower deal in Moscow that continued through the summer of 2016.
The president also retweeted the Newsmax host John Cardillo saying: 'I told you all that the BuzzFeed story was nonsense. Then he also drew attention to podcaster Dan Bongino's commentary, 'We called it. FAKE NEWS! "More Buzzfeed B.S."'.
He goes on to retweet Sebastian Gorka posting a photo of Trump's inauguration, and podcaster Bongino asserting Trump's job approval among Latinos is up during the government shutdown.
Earlier, New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow had tweeted his own misgivings about the BuzzFeed story, writing: 'I can't speak to Buzzfeed's sourcing, but, for what it's worth, I declined to run with parts of the narrative they conveyed based on a source central to the story repeatedly disputing the idea that Trump directly issued orders of that kind.
CNN also written previously that the former Los Angeles Times, Dow Jones, and Vice News reporter Leopold had a 'checkered past' when it came to accuracy of his reports during the George W. Bush administration, prior to the Mueller office statement.
Leopold's investigative partner, Anthony Cormier, however, was a member of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team in 2016 at the Tampa Bay Times prior to joining BuzzFeed. He collaborated on an investigative series into the neglected mental health system in Florida.
He joined BuzzFeed's investigative unit shortly afterwards. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr.
, meanwhile, has been gleefully firing off tweets about the news outlet retweeting the Mueller office rebuttal with nothing but a series of 'crying laughing' emojis, and retweeting another post that had made the statement that either Trump is finished or BuzzFeed is with the comment 'You were saying??'.
Since the statement put out by Mueller's office, the President's eldest son Donald Trump Jr has been tweeting and retweeting rapidly taking shots at BuzzFeed and other media outlets reporting around the story including The Daily Beast and CNN.
Buzzfeed's report, if true, would constitute subornation of perjury – a felony crime. Obstruction of justice was the first order of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.
Trump blasted his former lawyer and fixer Cohen on Friday as a liar who was 'trying to reduce his jail time' when he reportedly told Mueller that a scheme to build a Trump Tower project in Moscow extended through the 2016 Republican National Convention and into the months before Trump became president-elect.
Earlier Friday Cohen returned to his Manhattan apartment Friday after getting medical treatment – with his arm appearing to be in a sling. Cohen advisor Lanny Davis said Cohen had gone into the hospital for pre-scheduled shoulder surgery.
Cohen could be seen with his left arm covered, hanging in a sling. He was holding a full-size white pillow against his body. His right hand had a small bandage of the kind used to cover a small wound by an IV.
He also wore a red identification bracelet of the kind distributed by hospitals.
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