President Trump relished special counsel Robert Mueller’s pushback of a BuzzFeed News report that claimed the president had ordered his former attorney to lie to Congress.
Trump called it “a very sad day for journalism,” reminding his Twitter followers that the news outlet was also responsible for publishing an unverified dossier that contained salacious details about the president and his alleged links to Russia.
“A great day for our country,” Trump ended the tweet.
Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited “Dossier,” paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based! A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019
The infamous dossier was compiled by former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele. Steele was hired by political research Fusion GPS during the 2016 presidential campaign to conduct research on then-candidate Trump. It was revealed in October 2017 that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee had paid for the research that led to the dossier. The dossier eventually was handed over to the FBI, which used it to obtain warrants to surveil Trump aide Carter Page.
Trump spent much of the evening retweeting criticisms of the news outlet. “The BuzzFeed bombshell bombed. It blew up in their face and the rest of the fake news are casualties too,” one the tweets read.
Fake News is truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2019
Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, earlier called on the Justice Department to investigate the sources behind BuzzFeed’s report. The website cited two anonymous federal law enforcement officials in its reporting that Trump directed his then-attorney Michael Cohen to lie in congressional testimony about negotiations for a Trump Tower project in Moscow. Cohen, who has been interviewed by Mueller’s team, pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress about the proposed building.
“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,” special counsel spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement Friday.
So far, BuzzFeed is standing by its reporting. Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith said he was confident in the sourcing.
