'Not Accurate': Mueller Refutes BuzzFeed Cohen Scoop

"BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate," a spokesperson for Mueller's office said late Friday evening.

​The news outlet published on Thursday an article citing "two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter," claiming to have evidence that Donald Trump ordered his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about the duration of his negotiations with Russian officials over a prospective Trump Tower Moscow hotel project. Trump claimed during the 2016 presidential campaign that he had no business interests in Russia, but if the claims are true, then Trump directed Cohen to tell Congress during October 2018 testimony that the deal had concluded prior to Trump's claims when they did not.

Friday, the veracity of those sources came under question as reporters pressed the story's authors, Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier, about how well they had examined those sources, and indeed, whether they had at all. Now, the Office of the Special Counsel, who many had believed to be the source of the information (which would make it a leak, something Mueller's office is not known for), has explicitly said that BuzzFeed's characterization of the documents and testimony in its story is not accurate.