CNN is still refusing to correct or retract their July 27 Trump Tower story despite Lanny Davis now admitting he was an anonymous source for the report.
Davis, an attorney for Michel Cohen, told BuzzFeed News on Monday that he was one of CNN’s “anonymous sources” for the bombshell report. The report claimed Cohen was prepared to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump knew about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with the Russians before it occurred.
Since that reporting, Davis has admitted on multiple occasions that his client does not have any information that Trump knew about the meeting beforehand and that he erroneously confirmed the report to multiple news outlets. (RELATED: CNN Is Standing By Its Trump Tower Story Despite Multiple Contradictions)
“I made a mistake,” Davis told BuzzFeed News about being a source for the story. “I’m glad to take ownership of the mistake. Now I’m taking the heat, and it’s justified.”
During a CNN interview last Wednesday with anchor Anderson Cooper, Davis acknowledged that the reporting got “mixed up” but declined being a source for the story.
He told BuzzFeed about those comments, “I did not mean to be cute.”
Despite serving as an anonymous source for CNN’s Trump Tower story, Davis was also cited on the record as having declined to comment, misleading readers into believing that Davis was not a source for the story.
Despite one of their major sources crumbling under scrutiny, CNN PR still told Buzzfeed News that they are standing by the story — repeating a statement they released on Sunday night.
“We stand by our story, and are confident in our reporting of it,” a spokesperson said.
CNN’s defense appears to be that they were only reporting on the claims of their sources and not the underlying truth of those claims. However, CNN has refused to update the story with any of Davis’ recent statements so that readers can judge whether or not the claims hold water.
CNN also did not write any separate headlines about Davis admitting Cohen had no information about when Trump knew of the meeting with the Russians, raising even further questions about transparency.
The Hill media reporter Joe Concha questioned how CNN can continue to stand by its reporting “given its own formerly-anonymous source is now openly admitting to lying.”
Very difficult to see how CNN can continue to stand by its July 27 Michael Cohen/Trump Tower story given its own formerly-anonymous source is now openly admitting to lying about it on the network. Retraction seems to be the only recourse here: https://t.co/VfiITO5XK6
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) August 28, 2018
“Retraction seems to be the only recourse here,” Concha concluded.