Trump Praises Mueller: ‘I Appreciate’ Statement Pushing Back on BuzzFeed Report
President Donald Trump offered some very rare praise to Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Saturday after his office released a statement pushing back on a BuzzFeed News report.
BuzzFeed News dropped a bombshell on Thursday night: that Trump allegedly directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, a crime Cohen was convicted of and is set to serve prison time for.
On Friday night, however — after a hysterical news cycle — the special counsel’s office disputed the report.
“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,” said a spokesman for Mueller’s office in a statement.
After embarking on a Twitter victory lap against BuzzFeed and the media, Trump offered praise to Mueller.
“I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night,” Trump said to reporters on the White House lawn Saturday. “I think it was very appropriate that they did so, I very much appreciate that.”
“It was a total phony story,” Trump added. “[It] was a disgrace to our country, it was a disgrace the journalism.”
Though Mueller’s statement on the BuzzFeed report is vague, it raises serious concerns as to whether the explosive claims in the story — that Cohen told Mueller’s office Trump instructed him to commit perjury — are true.
For now, BuzzFeed is standing by its piece:
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.
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) January 19, 2019
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