Donald Trump Jr. continued his battle with CNN on Tuesday, calling two of the network’s “bombshell” reports “pure BS.”
“It’s simple, there is no penalty for being wrong about Trump. If it’s against Trump, any error no matter how egregious is ignored or forgiven,” Trump Jr. tweeted.
It’s simple, there is no penalty for being wrong about Trump. If it’s against Trump, any error no matter how egregious is ignored or forgiven. These two “bombshells” about me were pure BS but they got their hit in and that’s all they’re looking for. https://t.co/psuLmmoV02
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 28, 2018
He was referring to two CNN stories, one published last month and one published in December, that were widely cited after publication as evidence of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.
The first story, from Dec. 8, 2017, alleged that Donald Trump Jr. received an email on Sept. 4, 2016 containing a link and encryption key to hacked emails provided to Wikileaks. The second story, published on July 27, asserted that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen claimed to have been present during a meeting when Trump Jr. told his father about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a group of Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
According to CNN, Cohen said he was willing to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller that President Trump approved of the meeting.
The first story was completely debunked while the second has come under intense scrutiny, given that one of the sources, Cohen attorney Lanny Davis, has retracted his claim.
The Wikileaks story fell apart after Trump Jr.’s attorney released an email showing that the real estate executive received the email linking to hacked documents a day after they had been released by Wikileaks. Rather than providing a preview to stolen political documents, the person who emailed Trump Jr. was pointing to information that had already been made public. (RELATED: CNN Botches Major ‘Bombshell’ Alleging Links Between Wikileaks And Don Jr.)
Davis, a longtime associate of the Clintons who began representing Cohen last month, poured cold water on the second story during an interview last Wednesday.
Davis said that Cohen did not know whether or not Trump had prior knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting.
Davis has since acknowledged that he was an anonymous source for several outlets that reported the story. He told BuzzFeed News on Monday that he was also an anonymous source for CNN’s original piece.
“These two “bombshells” about me were pure BS but they got their hit in and that’s all they’re looking for,” Trump Jr. tweeted on Tuesday.
Six days after Davis disputed the CNN piece, the network published an article with the headline, “Attorney for Michael Cohen keeps changing his story on Trump Tower meeting.” (RELATED: CNN Quadruples Down On Dubious Trump Story — Leaves Out Key Details)
CNN said in the article that it was standing by its story. The article does not address why the July 27 piece claims that Davis declined comment even though it is now known that he was an anonymous source.
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