CNBC reported this weekend that President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, once paid an estimated “$1 million in fines after Chicago authorities found more than 180 cars used in his taxi businesses were unauthorized.”
This is not true.
The same CNBC article, which is based entirely on the New York Times’ original reporting, also claimed Cohen was barred last April from managing Taxi medallions in New York City.
This is also not true.
Lastly, the CNBC story said authorities have been monitoring Cohen ever since he transferred roughly $60 million to offshore accounts to “avoid paying debts.”
Cohen has done no such thing. But at least they got his name correct.
The CNBC story, originally titled, “Michael Cohen’s business steeped in opaque deals, questionable times: New York Times,” now carries the word “CORRECTION” (in all-caps!) in the headline.
The article also carries this astounding editor’s note:
Good Lord. Did they even read the Times’ original report? I can understand one or even two mistakes, but three is asking too much. At what point does it become deliberate?
This is bad. No two ways about it. The only thing that makes it worse is the fact that CNBC’s sister company, NBC News, made an equally massive mistake last Friday when it reported that federal agents had “tapped” Cohen’s phones.
The DOJ has done no such thing. Rather, federal authorities have reportedly deployed a pen register, which only logs outgoing and incoming numbers to Cohen’s phones. This is significantly different from federal agents eavesdropping on his conversations.
Like the CNBC article, the botched NBC report carries a lengthy correction, which reads:
Cohen is a self-described “fixer.” It’s possible he has a whole bunch of skeletons in his closet. But it’s going to be a hell of a lot harder getting anyone to take the real stories seriously if people in this industry keep crying wolf with these botched “scoops.”
