CLARIFICATION

Mueller's Office: Report Claiming Trump Pushed Cohen to Lie ‘Not Accurate’

In a rare public statement, Mueller's office said BuzzFeed's “characterization” of comments and testimony obtained by their office was inaccurate.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Office Friday evening contested a BuzzFeed News report claiming they had evidence Trump had told Michael Cohen to commit perjury. “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,” a spokesperson for Mueller's office said. BuzzFeed News has since added Mueller's statement to the top of their story, and said they are “continuing to report and determine what the special counsel is disputing.” According to their statement, the website remains “confident in the accuracy of [their] report.” BuzzFeed's editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, said the website also stood by the “sources who informed” the report and “urge[ed] the Special Counsel to make clear what he's disputing.”

The story, published Thursday night, reported that Mueller was in possession of “internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents” that displayed Trump's “directive for Cohen to lie to Congress,” and that Cohen had “acknowledged those instructions” in interviews with Mueller's office.