OPINION:
Be careful on interpreting Robert Mueller’s statement about BuzzFeed.
It’s not completely clear that the special counsel is disputing the BuzzFeed core claim or something else.
People who want the president to succeed in implementing his agenda understandably want to see BuzzFeed and its anti-Trump claims ground into tiny bits.
Count me in.
Mr. Mueller — Mr. Evil Incarnate to some Trump surrogates, paid and voluntary — may have done that grinding of BuzzFeed with his highly unusual statement issued through an aide.
“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,” the special counsel’s spokesman Peter Carr said.
But — and this is a “but” the size of a buzzard’s tail — Buzzfeed Editor Ben Smith gave Mr. Murller the ancient and venerable single-finger sign of non-agreement.
“We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing, ” Mr. Smith said.
Can anyone sound that arrogant and be dead wrong in his claim?
Hope so.
You’ll recall that BuzzFeed had just broken the potentially Trump-crushing scoop that shady ex-Trump counsel Michael Cohen told Mr. Mueller’s legal beagles that Trump had told Cohen to lie to Congress about a proposed Moscow Trump Tower project in Moscow.
Angling for a Trump Tower deal would have been no towering crime, but suborning perjury is.
BuzzFeed said Mr. Mueller learned of the lie from “interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.”
President Trump tweeted this: “Remember it was Buzzfeed that released the totally discredited ’Dossier,’ paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats (as opposition research), on which the entire Russian probe is based! A very sad day for journalism, but a great day for our Country!”
Looks like BuzzFeed is up its beak in buzzard droppings.
“Looks like,” however, isn’t certainty.
So, to switch metaphors in mid-post, let’s hold our horses and stay up no later than 1 a.m. to see if a fillip emerges to this story’s latest curlicue.
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