CNN Sticks With Story That Cohen Alleges Trump Knew Of Trump Tower Meeting Despite Cohen and His Lawyer Denying The Story

jonathanturley

8 years ago

CNN is facing rising questions over its refusal to correct its earlier bombshell story entitled “Cohen Claims Trump Knew In Advance Of 2016 Trump Tower Meeting.” As I discussed recently, Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis now admits that he was the anonymous source for that story (after publicly denying that he was the source) and that he has no information to support the allegation. Cohen himself testified to Congress that he had no such information. One would think that the denial of both Cohen and his lawyer (and original source) would alter that story that “Cohen claims Trump knew . . . ” CNN however says that it had multiple sources for the story and sticks with the reporting by Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein and Marshall Cohen. President Trump has continued to hammer CNN and renowned reporter Carl Bernstein for the allegedly false statement:

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

· 10h

CNN is being torn apart from within based on their being caught in a major lie and refusing to admit the mistake. Sloppy @carlbernstein, a man who lives in the past and thinks like a degenerate fool, making up story after story, is being laughed at all over the country! Fake News

CNN responded in kind with a dig at Trump:

CNN Communications

✔@CNNPR

Make no mistake, Mr. President, CNN does not lie. We report the news. And we report when people in power tell lies. CNN stands by our reporting and our reporters. There may be many fools in this story but @carlbernstein is not one of them.

7:44 PM – Aug 29, 2018

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I generally give CNN the benefit of the doubt on such questions and I have been highly critical of Trump’s attacks on the media. However, this story leaves me a bit mystified.

CNN did run a story about Davis changing his story. However, the network stated:

On July 26, citing sources with knowledge, CNN was first to report that Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, claimed he was willing to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower. CNN said Cohen claimed he was present when Donald Trump Jr. told Trump about the Russians’ offer to share dirt on Hillary Clinton, and Trump gave approval for the meeting to take place.

CNN stands by its story.

So it has multiple sources, but it also has Cohen denying such information both to Congress and to his counsel. Even if Cohen was one of the original sources, his counsel is now denying the information.

There is also the highly problematic treatment of Davis in the original story. The story states “Contacted by CNN, one of Cohen’s attorneys, Lanny Davis, declined to comment.” However, that is clearly false and misleading, right? Davis did comment as a source. He simply did so anonymously.

All of this leaves most of us confused. If the other source or sources was not Cohen himself, they are clearly contradicted by Cohen and his lawyer. If it was Cohen, he is now denying the information through Congress and did so under oath. In either case, it is hard to see how the original story can stand uncorrected.

What do you think?

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