The real danger with a BuzzFeed News report claiming President Donald Trump instructed his former attorney Michael Cohen to lie during his testimony to Congress was with what the rest of the media did in response to it, George Washington University legal expert Jonathan Turley said Monday.
"If they [BuzzFeed] actually had two people associated with [special counsel Robert Mueller] saying this, it was news," Turley told Fox News' "Fox & Friends." "It was what the media did with the article that is so disturbing."
Turley pointed out the media began the week by "really castigating" Attorney General nominee William Barr for a "rather scholarly memorandum" on the use of obstruction in connection to the firing of former FBI director James Comey.
Barr was "perfectly right" with his memo, Turley said.
"But the end of the week, they jumped all over BuzzFeed and said that impeachment and indictment seemed imminent," Turley added. "What I think it does show is that there is a media bias."
However, he said people are "kidding themselves" if they think BuzzFeed's article was 100 percent wrong, even though Mueller's team Friday night issued a memo saying its description of specific statements to the special counsel's office, "are not accurate."
He also said he thinks Trump's attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, took a preemptive step Sunday, when he told CNN that Trump might have spoken with his attorney about his testimony.
"I think that Michael Cohen is going to Congress to incriminate the president," Turley said. "That doesn't mean that it's true, but if true, you can anticipate that he's going to bring details, including this one."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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