In a rare statement, the Office of the Special Envoy for the Russian Intervention in the US Elections Robert Mueller issued a statement saying that reports of US President Donald Trump's request from his former lawyer to lie to Congress were inaccurate.
On Thursday, based on two undisclosed federal police sources, Trump asked his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie at the congressional hearing in 2017 on talks on a real estate project in Russia, the Buzz News News reported on Thursday night.
"Bouzafid's description of inaccurate statements made to the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the documents and testimony he received about the testimony of Michael Cohen to Congress," the spokesman said.
Trump was immediately quoted in a tweet of a Fox News television screen during a broadcast of Muller's explanations. The US president then welcomed the Müller team's announcement. After tweets criticizing the news site, he wrote "A sad day for the press, but a great day for our country."
He later added his famous anti-media statement, "False news is really the enemy of the people."
| Trump: False news is really the enemy of the people (Reuters) |
Charge and gravity
"We confirm our confidence in our investigation and in the sources that have fueled it, and we call on the Special Prosecutor to clarify what he objects to," Ben Smith told reporters in a tweet.
The website said the accusation was dangerous because it was the first example of an order in which Trump asked someone under his command to lie directly about his relations with Russia.
Cohen, who usually confirms or denies Twitter's press information, has not reacted this time. His lawyer, Lanny Davis, said he would not answer any questions.
The White House and Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer, strongly defended the US president on Friday in the face of the charges, which the Democratic opposition considered "the most dangerous" so far.
Opposition Democrats used the report, saying they would investigate the allegations, if proven, would mean Trump committed a felony while in office.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, described the report as "among the most serious yet," and said his party would investigate its accuracy.