Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office is pushing back Friday against a report that claimed President Trump told his attorney Michael Cohen to lie in congressional testimony about his business dealings with Russia.
The new allegations, published by BuzzFeed on Thursday, relied on statements from unnamed federal law enforcement officials.
“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 Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller’s office.
The report detailed claims that in 2015 and 2016, Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump, and son Donald Trump Jr. had asked Cohen to handle a deal regarding a potential Trump Tower Moscow and give them regular updates on its progress. Trump allegedly later told Cohen to lie about the timing of the deal, which the report claimed the special counsel’s office learned about through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.
Mueller is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen, who pleaded guilty in August to eight counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud, admitted in his November plea deal that the negotiations for Trump Tower Moscow continued into the campaign.
