{"id":393398,"date":"2019-01-19T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-19T06:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/mueller-shoots-down-buzzfeeds-latest-russiagate-scoop-with-a-rare-dismissal-rt-usa-news\/"},"modified":"2019-01-19T07:00:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T06:00:51","slug":"mueller-shoots-down-buzzfeeds-latest-russiagate-scoop-with-a-rare-dismissal-rt-usa-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/mueller-shoots-down-buzzfeeds-latest-russiagate-scoop-with-a-rare-dismissal-rt-usa-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Mueller shoots down BuzzFeed&#8217;s latest &#8216;Russiagate&#8217; scoop with a rare dismissal \u2014 RT USA News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/thumbnail\/5c42afa2dda4c8240c8b4672.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Special counsel Robert Mueller has poured cold water on BuzzFeed&#8217;s latest &#8220;Russiagate&#8221; bombshell with a rare public statement calling the article, which claims Trump told his ex-lawyer Cohen to lie to Congress, &#8220;not accurate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>BuzzFeed reported that President Donald Trump directly instructed his former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his plans to build a Trump Tower property in Moscow, citing two anonymous &#8220;<em>federal law enforcement officials<\/em>&#8221; as sources that the president had suborned perjury \u2013 which, being an actual crime, triggered talk of impeachment &#8220;<em>walls closing in<\/em>&#8221; among the anti-Trump &#8220;<em>Resistance.<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"read-more-big\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/449158-buzzfeed-trumo-cohen-no-evidence\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n    <span class=\"read-more-big__container\"><br \/>\n        <span class=\"read-more-big__content\"><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__subtitle\">Also on rt.com<\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__title\">What evidence? BuzzFeed fuels \u2018Russiagate\u2019 with bombshell report on Trump and Cohen<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n            <span class=\"read-more-big__cover lazyload\" data-bgset=\"&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/xxs\/5c4231fbfc7e93b7308b461c.JPG 280w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/xs\/5c4231fbfc7e93b7308b461c.JPG 320w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/thumbnail\/5c4231fbfc7e93b7308b461c.JPG 460w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/m\/5c4231fbfc7e93b7308b461c.JPG 540w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/l\/5c4231fbfc7e93b7308b461c.JPG 768w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/article\/5c4231fbfc7e93b7308b461c.JPG 980w,&#10;                            https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2019.01\/xxl\/5c4231fbfc7e93b7308b461c.JPG 1240w&#10;                        \" data-sizes=\"auto\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/span><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While half of Congress took to Twitter to wave the story as the long-awaited proof of Collusion, the BuzzFeed reporters could not seem to agree on their own sourcing. Anthony Cormier <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/atrupar\/status\/1086255814074085378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1086255814074085378&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fusa%2F449158-buzzfeed-trumo-cohen-no-evidence%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">admitted<\/a> to CNN he hadn&#8217;t seen the proof directly but had two &#8220;<em>law enforcement<\/em>&#8221; sources claiming they had seen it, while Jason Leopold <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MSNBC\/status\/1086280704999092224\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told<\/a> MSNBC they had in fact seen the documents themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The smoking gun du jour collapsed further when word came down from Mueller himself \u2013 via spokesman Peter Carr \u2013 that Buzzfeed&#8217;s &#8220;<em>description of specific statements to the Special Counsel&#8217;s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen&#8217;s Congressional testimony<\/em>&#8221; were &#8220;<em>not accurate<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mueller has been extremely tight-lipped about the numerous previous &#8220;<em>Russiagate<\/em>&#8221; scoops, and considering the time and effort involved in his own ongoing crusade to take Trump down, his dismissal of BuzzFeed&#8217;s would-be bombshell\u00a0knocked the legs out from under a\u00a0story whose vague sourcing had already raised questions.<\/p>\n<p>Mueller&#8217;s laconic smackdown has led many on Twitter to declare BuzzFeed officially discredited.<\/p>\n<p>But Leopold &amp; Cormier are holding on, even trying to pry more information out of the typically-taciturn Mueller with a tweet &#8220;<em>urg[ing] the Special Counsel to make clear what he&#8217;s disputing<\/em>.&#8221; Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith clarified in a call to CNN and MSNBC that it would be the &#8220;<em>responsible thing<\/em>&#8221; for Mueller to clarify his denial.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you like this story, share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/usa\/449170-mueller-buzzfeed-collusion-denial\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Special counsel Robert Mueller has poured cold water on BuzzFeed&#8217;s latest &#8220;Russiagate&#8221; bombshell with a rare public statement calling the article, which claims Trump told his ex-lawyer Cohen to lie to Congress, &#8220;not accurate.&#8221; BuzzFeed reported that President Donald Trump directly instructed his former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about his plans to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":393399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-393398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}