I can't pull the link at the moment but the nytimes story cites a source familiar with Cohens testimony saying that Trump did not pressure Cohen to lie. I'm betting that source is Cohen, who can't say it publicly because of agreement with SCO.
I don't know. No one else is making my suggestion so maybe not. That statement was probably edited and worked on by no less than 5 lawyers including Mueller himself. It was carefully crafted to leave open the possibility that the main point of the story is true. Anyway, we'll know Feb 7.
Everyone is drawing significance from the fact Mueller issued a statement, even though it was narrow and did not dispute the thrust of the story. What if Whitaker directed them to issue a statement? That would explain a lot,. especially why Mueller would break his silence now.
Ya know, the question of "why issue a statement?" We're all assuming Mueller thought it was necessary to issue a statement. What if Whitaker directed it? That would explain why issue a narrow statement at all if the story was largely true. Trump is fucked.
My guess is SCO saw this story getting out of hand and wanted to punish the SDNY leakers. It was a narrow statement but enough to make BF and the leakers look bad. And take some pressure off.
Here's the meat of the Buzzfeed story to consider which specific statements and characterizations are not accurate: Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.
The statement from the special counsels office actually seems to acknowledge some truth to the BUzzfeed story. It's a narrow denial: 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.
Holy shit. I can't stop laughing. He just needs a reindeer caravan to scare people into supporting the wall. Maybe carrying a fat guy on a sleigh. He should have thought about this a month ago.