CNN's own source has said that the news outlet's Michael Cohen story, which implied that Donald Trump had prior knowledge of the Trump Tower 2016 meeting, is fake news, but the network said it is standing by its story, RT reported.
In July, CNN reported Cohen had claimed Trump knew about the June 2016 meeting in which Russians were "expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton," according to "sources with knowledge."
The report went on to state that Cohen was "willing to make that assertion to special counsel Robert Mueller."
Trump denied the story and recently Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, said the claims were not true.
According to the New York Post, which contacted Davis at the time to confirm the report, the lawyer initially confirmed the claims anonymously but later he spoke out and apologized for confirming reports that he did not know to be true.
Other news outlets that relied upon CNN's report have retracted their Michael Cohen story, however, CNN said it stood by its story.
"We stand by our story, and are confident in our reporting of it," a CNN spokesperson said.
Writing for The Interceptor, jornalist Glenn Greenwald noted that it is possible that other sources told CNN that Cohen had information on the Trump Tower meeting and that Davis is unaware of this.
"Unfortunately, CNN refuses to tell us anything about what it itself said was a "blockbuster" story, so it's impossible to know," he said.