"The Core Of Buzzfeed's Story Is Correct"

Rachel Maddow had a good explainer last night on the latest twists in the Buzzfeed report about Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump suborning perjury by Michael Cohen, and the Special Counsel office's highly parsed pushback.

The bottom line, as stated by former senior DOJ official Chuck Rosenberg, is that the core of Buzzfeed's story is correct, as evidenced by the Special Counsel's own court filing.

You can also add this episode to the file of "mainstream media pecksniffs more interested in shivving competitors rather than doing their jobs" (see Mock Paper Scissors).

Reactions To Report Trump Suborned Perjury

We're going to start with some reactions on Twitter to the report that Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump (Individual 1) suborned perjury by directing Michael Cohen to lie to Congress:

If Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress, who else did he tell to lie to them? Did he tell anyone to lie to Mueller & the FBI? And why did the President need to have lies told? These are the questions prosecutors have been asking & undoubtedly answering.

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 18, 2019

Mueller has receipts... "The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Org and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." https://t.co/OgxaFjSrfH

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) January 18, 2019

"If a President...suborns perjury, or induces a witness to change testimony, or commits any act deliberately impairing the integrity of available evidence, then he, like anyone else, commits the crime of obstruction." — William Barr https://t.co/LziXcdoaTQ

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) January 18, 2019

After last night, anyone connected to the WH who was involved in the TT Moscow coverup should call Mueller &/or Congressional Democrats & beg them to listen if they haven't started talking already. It's a matter of time before Trump tries to throw them under the bus with Cohen.

— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) January 18, 2019

In summary,

BOOM!https://t.co/QDkUMaEa7M pic.twitter.com/9kcZZ8m1gt

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) January 18, 2019

BOOM! Trump Instructed Cohen To Lie To Congress

According to a bombshell report in Buzzfeed, Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump (Individual 1) suborned perjury by his then- personal attorney Michael Cohen in testimony to Congress, and the Special Counsel has corroborating evidence:

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter. [snip] 

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying about the deal in testimony and in a two-page statement to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Special counsel Robert Mueller noted that Cohen’s false claim that the project ended in January 2016 was an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1” — widely understood to be Trump — “in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.” 

Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement. 

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. 

This revelation is not the first evidence to suggest the president may have attempted to obstruct the FBI and special counsel investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. 

But Cohen's testimony marks a significant new frontier: It is the first known example of Trump explicitly telling a subordinate to lie directly about his own dealings with Russia.  (our emphasis)

We'll be posting on new developments and reactions to this as the day progresses.