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AndJusticeForSome

(537 posts)
Sat Jan 19, 2019, 10:12 AM Jan 2019

Which part of BuzzFeed report Mueller took issue with

My guess on what aspects of the Buzz Feed article were objectionable to the SC's office. First, watch this interview with Anthony Cormier on CNN, and/or read my partial-not-word-for-word-but-close transcript. Then, read the two excerpts from the BF story below.

Our sources are fully 100% read into that aspect of the SC investigation...

They had been working on the Trump Tower Moscow investigation before Mueller...

They had access to a number of different documents, interview reports, and that stuff was sort of compiled, as they began to look at who those players were speaking with, how those negations went, who all from the Trump org, and outside the org, were involved in getting that tower set up...

They compiled this evidence before Michael Cohen decided to cooperate, and to speak with the SC...

It's our understanding that they then presented this evidence to Cohen...began to ask questions based off of it....

Then he acknowledged it in his interview, yes indeed I was directed by the president...

We don't know at this point, and our sources haven't told us, exactly what... we haven't been told how exactly that directive was handed down, whether in person, or by phone, it's not clear, but ... it is rock solid information, developed over a long period of time, and then Michael was used to, sort of, confirm it.




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.

Cohen also declined comment — but the law enforcement sources familiar with his testimony to the special counsel said he had confirmed that Trump directed him to lie to Congress, and also that he had provided details of his conversations about the project with the president and Ivanka and Donald Jr.


I *think* what may be ambiguous is

"The SC office learned about...through interviews with..."

There are 2 ways to read this:
1) the SC learned it through *their* interviews with
2) the SC learned it through interviews {conducted by others} -- see bolded above

One reading suggests that the SC interviewed "multiple witnesses from the Trump organization". I believe we know that the accountant was interviewed by the SC, but who else? Perhaps those interviews with other Trump org people were conducted by, eg, SDNY, and that info was part of the compilation that was presented to Cohen, and passed on to Mueller?

Similarly, in the 2nd excerpt, "sources familiar with (Cohen's) testimony (to the SC)" said "he (Cohen) had confirmed Trump directed him to lie".

That could be read as either the "source said he confirmed" or "source said his testimony to the SC confirmed."

Sloppy writing, and perhaps just ambiguous enough that Mueller's office felt the need to object.

Just a thought. And while perhaps not *the* thing SC objected to, an example of *the sort of thing* that was ambiguous enough.
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Which part of BuzzFeed report Mueller took issue with (Original Post) AndJusticeForSome Jan 2019 OP
The SC focusing on precision when approximate is still very bad is lawyerly, don't know what the ... uponit7771 Jan 2019 #1
The sloppiness is actually from Mueller's side manor321 Jan 2019 #2
But, the fun has always been to leak classified information in such a way that the information LiberalArkie Jan 2019 #3

uponit7771

(90,347 posts)
1. The SC focusing on precision when approximate is still very bad is lawyerly, don't know what the ...
Sat Jan 19, 2019, 10:15 AM
Jan 2019

... strategy is here but it's no doubt strange

 

manor321

(3,344 posts)
2. The sloppiness is actually from Mueller's side
Sat Jan 19, 2019, 10:18 AM
Jan 2019

They should have stayed quiet instead of this vague nonsense. AND they should have commented to Buzzfeed when Buzzfeed contacted them before the story was published.

LiberalArkie

(15,720 posts)
3. But, the fun has always been to leak classified information in such a way that the information
Sat Jan 19, 2019, 10:45 AM
Jan 2019

can interpreted many different ways.

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