President Donald Trump rebuked NBC News after the network backpedaled a story about Trump’s lawyer that was based on anonymous sources.
“NBC NEWS is wrong again! They cite ‘sources’ which are constantly wrong. Problem is, like so many others, the sources probably don’t exist, they are fabricated, fiction! NBC, my former home with the Apprentice, is now as bad as Fake News CNN. Sad!” Trump stated in a Friday morning, May 4, tweet.
The Thursday story claimed that federal investigators have, for weeks, wiretapped phone lines of the lawyer, Michael Cohen, “according to multiple senior officials and individuals with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.”
But later that day NBC News issued a correction and rewrote the story, saying that the investigators have looked at what numbers called or were called from Cohen’s lines rather than wiretapped them (listened to the calls themselves).
“The affidavits are typically highly detailed and carefully vetted by experienced lawyers,” he said.
The original article even claimed, relying on one source, that one phone call between Cohen’s line and the White House was intercepted.
Listening on a call potentially between Trump and his lawyer would have signaled a major breach of attorney-client privilege, one of the highest protections in the U.S. legal system.
Cohen faces investigation for a $130,000 payment he agreed to make in October 2016 as part of a non-disclosure agreement (NDL) with Stephanie Clifford also known as Stormy Daniels. She came out in March saying she accepted the money in exchange for not talking about a 2006 affair with Trump.
Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said that the raid was partly a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.
Trump previously said he knew nothing about the $130,000 payment. On Thursday, he clarified that Cohen reimbursed himself for the payment using money from a monthly retainer provided by Trump.
