WASHINGTON, Jan 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s
office took the rare step Friday of disputing a news report on his Russia
investigation, saying a BuzzFeed article alleging that US President Donald
Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress is “not accurate.”
Trump’s lieutenants had already strongly pushed back against the report,
which said that the president ordered Michael Cohen to lie about a Russian
skyscraper project they pursued during the 2016 election.
“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,”
spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement.
Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 vote and
possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow is the subject of
frequent articles and even more frequent speculation.
But it is extremely rare — if not unprecedented — for his office to issue
such a statement.
BuzzFeed’s editor-in chief however said the news organization stood by its
work.
“We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the
Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing,” Ben Smith tweeted.
The statement was nevertheless a cause for celebration for the president,
who retweeted numerous supporters slamming BuzzFeed and later wrote it was “A
very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!”
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had earlier called the allegation in the
BuzzFeed report “categorically false” in a comment sent to several White
House reporters, while Deputy White House Spokesman Hogan Gidley labeled the
report “ridiculous.” He said Cohen is someone “who now quite frankly has been
proven to be a liar.”
Democrats in Congress had pledged to investigate the report to see if the
president had committed an impeachable felony.
“These allegations may prove unfounded, but, if true, they would constitute
both the subornation of perjury as well as obstruction of justice,” said Adam
Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
BuzzFeed reported late Thursday that Cohen, who worked for trump for more
than a decade, has told investigators that the president personally
instructed him to lie about the Moscow Trump Tower plan in testimony in 2017
to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
The BuzzFeed article was based on interviews with two anonymous “federal
law enforcement officials” who are familiar with Cohen’s testimony to the
investigation led by Mueller.
“Any suggestion — from any source — that the president counseled Michael
Cohen to lie is categorically false. Michael Cohen is a convicted criminal
and a liar,” Giuliani said in a statement quoted by New York Times reporter
Maggie Haberman.
“Lying to reduce his jail time!” Trump said on Twitter of Cohen, who was
convicted last year of fraud and perjury.
– A plea deal –
No other media have confirmed BuzzFeed’s reporting.
It came two months after Cohen pleaded guilty in a New York court to making
“false, fictitious and fraudulent” written testimony to the House and Senate
intelligence committees in August 2017 in connection with the Moscow project.
A statement of the facts in his November 29 plea deal with Mueller’s
prosecutors suggested that his testimony had been prepared in consultation
with unnamed people in the White House.
Cohen had told the two committees that the Moscow project talks ended in
January 2016, when in fact, as he later admitted, they went on at least six
months longer, to June 2016 when Trump had already secured the Republican
nomination for president.
Cohen had also testified that others in the campaign, including Trump, were
not informed about the project.
But in the November plea deal, Cohen also admitted the project had been
discussed with Trump — designated “Individual 1” in court documents —
several times in early 2016.
“Cohen made the false statements to minimize links between the Moscow
project and Individual 1… in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia
investigations,” prosecutors wrote.
– Trump’s right-hand man –
Cohen was the president’s right-hand man for years at the Trump
Organization, the umbrella company, often relied upon to quietly fix
difficult problems and negotiate deals for the real estate mogul.
But he has turned on his former boss after he was charged with giving hush
money to women alleging affairs with Trump ahead of the 2016 election —
payments that violated campaign finance laws.
Cohen, who has been sentenced to three years in jail, said Trump ordered
him to make the payments, and now says he regrets his work for the president.
While Democrats could not confirm the BuzzFeed report, they said they were
poised to further probe the allegations.
“Our committee is already working to secure additional witness testimony
and documents related to the Trump Tower Moscow deal and other investigative
matters,” said Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.