Lanny Davis, Michael Cohen's lawyer and TV spokesman, now admits to being CNN's anonymous source for a story he denied providing.
... [The] July CNN story ... reported his client, Michael Cohen, had privately claimed that President Trump had advance knowledge of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between his son and Russians ...
In the story, Cohen was reported to claim he had personally witnessed Donald Trump Jr. informing then-candidate Trump about the June 2016 meeting. Such a claim from Cohen would directly contradict Trump’s statements about his knowledge of the meeting, where Russians were set to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton.
CNN’s July 26 story has come under fresh scrutiny in recent days after Davis acknowledged he had served as an anonymous source for multiple news outlets who were seeking to confirm the CNN article in the hours after it published. Davis has backed away from the story in recent days, telling the Washington Post that he is not certain if the claim is accurate, and that he could not independently corroborate it.
Last week, Davis told Anderson Cooper, “I think the reporting of the story got mixed up in the course of a criminal investigation. We were not the source of the story.”
On Monday evening, Davis told BuzzFeed News that he regrets both his role as an anonymous source and his subsequent denial of his own involvement.
Davis told BuzzFeed News that he did, in fact, speak anonymously to CNN for its story, which cited “sources with knowledge” — meaning more than one person.
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As Trump-Russia bombshells often do, the story sparked a dash from media competitors to confirm the news. One by one — from NBC News to CBS News to the Washington Post — they did. When another outlet breaks a story, reporters tend to call up the requisite spokesperson to ask for comment. In this case, that spokesperson was Davis ...
Even for the uninitiated Trump-Russia reader, CNN’s article appeared a clear message from the beleaguered Cohen team to the special counsel’s office. The story went a step further than just Cohen’s personal knowledge: Cohen, CNN’s sources said, was willing to make his claim to special counsel Robert Mueller ...
CNN’s story was made all the more convincing thanks to the series of mainstream media rivals “matching” elements of the account, thanks in large part to Davis, who had requested and received anonymity to confirm that CNN’s reporting was accurate ...
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The decision from CNN to continue to stand by the story suggests that it believes the strength of its other sources outweighs any waffling from Davis — or that the network believes Davis was telling the truth then, and not now. But Davis’s new statement that he was a source for a story he now refutes raises questions about what action, if any, the network might take.
“We should address Lanny Davis’s comments in our reporting and be more transparent with our readers about our reporting,” one CNN staffer told BuzzFeed News.
Lanny Davis Says He Was A Source For CNN’s Trump Tower Story (BuzzFeed News)
Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting (CNN)