Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
President praises Mueller response to contested story
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he appreciated the public statement by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office disputing a BuzzFeed News report that Trump’s former attorney had said the president directed the lawyer to lie to Congress.
BuzzFeed, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials, reported that Trump had directed his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress
about a Moscow real estate project and that Cohen told Mueller the president had personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the deal.
The report said Mueller’s investigators learned about Trump’s directive “through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.”
The report said Cohen acknowledged Trump’s instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team.
The statement by Mueller’s office on Friday night doesn’t cite any specific errors.
Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, said the publication stands by its reporting and the sources who informed it.
“We urge the special counsel to make clear what he’s disputing,” Smith said.
The Associated Press had not independently confirmed the report.