Bob Woodward: I’m ‘thankful’ I don’t have to cover Russia probe on ‘daily basis’
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward told The New York Times he’s “thankful” he doesn’t have to cover the Russia investigation on a daily basis.
“I say to you on the record, I am thankful I don’t have to cover this story on a daily basis,” Woodward, whose reporting on Watergate for The Washington Post helped lead to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation, said, adding that “the hydraulic pressure in the system is just so great.”
{mosads}“The impatience of the internet — ‘give it to us immediately’ — drives so much, it’s hard to sort something like this out,” he said.
His comments came in a report from The Times about the fallout from a recent BuzzFeed News story that said President Trump had directed his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress.
The news site, citing two federal law enforcement officials, reported last week that Trump directed Cohen to lie about negotiations to build a Trump Tower project in Moscow.
The report also included details about special counsel Robert Mueller’s office learning that Trump ordered Cohen to lie through interviews, internal emails from the Trump Organization, text messages and other documents.
But a spokesman for Mueller’s office disputed the report, saying that “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office… are not accurate.”
The comment led Trump and others to criticize the news outlet, with the president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, suggesting BuzzFeed be sued.
BuzzFeed’s Anthony Cormier, an author of the piece, defended the reporting on Sunday, calling it “solid” and “accurate” in an appearance on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
BuzzFeed News editor in chief Ben Smith has also called on the special counsel’s office to be clearer in which parts of the report the office is disputing.
“We stand by our reporting and the sources who informed it, and we urge the Special Counsel to make clear what he’s disputing,” Smith said on Twitter following the statement from the special counsel.
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