Buzzfeed and McClatchy both declined to apologize for botched reports about Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer after the release of the Mueller report showed their reports fit the definition of what Trump often describes as “fake news.”
Written by Jason Leopold—who has a history of plagiarism—and Anthony Cormier, the story relied on two anonymous sources and claimed that Cohen told investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump told him to lie about talks he had with a Russian official for the tower.
The release of Mueller’s report on April 18 highlighted how wrong the story was.
“Cohen said that he and the President did not explicitly discuss whether Cohen’s testimony about the Trump Tower Moscow project would be or was false, and the President did not direct him to provide false testimony. Cohen also said he did not tell the President about the specifics of his planned testimony,” Mueller wrote in the report.
He added that while there is evidence “that the President knew Cohen provided false testimony to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project, the evidence available to us does not establish that the President directed or aided Cohen’s false testimony.”
Smith did not retract the original article nor did he, Leopold, or Cormier offer an apology to Trump for the article. Cormier did not comment on the issue, while Leopold directed his followers to Smith’s article on Twitter.
The original article retains the same headline but the subhead was appended on Thursday to read: “UPDATE: The Mueller report found that Trump did not direct Michael Cohen to lie.” Other than that, there is no editor’s note or correction.
McClatchy also refused to apologize for erroneous reports.
Citing two sources “familiar with the matter” that it did not name or describe in any more detail, the writers said that “investigators have traced evidence that Cohen entered the Czech Republic through Germany, apparently during August or early September of 2016 as the ex-spy reported.”
“He wouldn’t have needed a passport for such a trip, because both countries are in the so-called Schengen Area in which 26 nations operate with open borders. The disclosure still left a puzzle: The sources did not say whether Cohen took a commercial flight or private jet to Europe, and gave no explanation as to why no record of such a trip has surfaced,” they added.
Gordon and Stone again cited anonymous sources without describing their jobs or naming any of them. The report also claimed that “electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians.”
The writers again claimed that the evidence indicated that Steele’s raw intelligence about Cohen was correct.
In his report, Mueller wrote: “Cohen had never traveled to Prague and was not concerned about those allegations, which he believed were provably false.”
“McClatchy stands by the reporting,” it said, later quoting Kristin Roberts, McClatchy’s East Region editor, as saying that Mueller didn’t dispute the reports of Cohen’s phone pinging in or near Prague.
The outlet also added editor’s notes at the top of the two articles, stating: “Robert Mueller’s report to the attorney general states that Mr. Cohen was not in Prague. It is silent on whether the investigation received evidence that Mr. Cohen’s phone pinged in or near Prague, as McClatchy reported.”
