This is a career ending, publication killing pushback. Particularly given Leopold’s past fuck-ups (Karl Rove indicted, plagiarizing Financial Times reporting)
On the plus side, I found out which Full House character I am.
Bringing over from the other thread.
Talking Heads saying (they think) it’s the physical evidence. Twitter seems to think it might be a case of SDNY obtaining the evidence not SCO.
I’d also point out that twitter has locked onto the fact that SCO uses the terms “characterization” as a key term in the SCO reply.
Buzzfeed has issued a statement. They’re standing by this report, will go continue to report on it and have reached out to SCO to get clarification since they originally declined to comment.
I would love to get some insight from the Lawyers on the board because this is very finely worded.
Patience… Semantics, especially legal semantics. I would be surprised if this ends up as a stony end for Team America.
I suspect this report was deliberately planted misinformation for the purpose of discrediting Buzzfeed/distracting from other stories. Similar to what happened to Dan Rather way back when.
Regardless of whether or not it’s true… stepping back for a moment - consider how very plausible the story is to any sentient American; how readily believable it is. Sad times for our country.
If its too good to be true…
This was my original thought — the caveat “obtained by this office” seems important here. Josh was speculating earlier that the sourcing was not Mueller’s team but SDNY or some other law enforcement organization that is also conducting investigations.
It’s certainly possible, but I’m still skeptical that Buzzfeed ran with this story without absolutely rock-solid sourcing. But I guess we’ll see.
Another possibility is that this is Mueller’s attempt to pump the political brakes on some of the “impeach immediately” chatter that’s been rising in volume today. I would think he knows that every duck needs to be in a perfect row before any of this is brought forward to have any chance of success. As was famously said in The Wire, “You come at the king, you best not miss.”
Whether or not Trump told Cohen to lie, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it is beyond dispute-since he did it on Twitter-that he has attempted to intimidate Cohen and stop him from testifying before the House committee. That in itself is a serious crime.
Yes, I can see this is them pumping the breaks because the Dems jumped right to Impeach Now!
I also wonder if the stuff about the physical evidence (emails, texts) are wrong but the verbal confirmation are correct or maybe they have different physical evidence (tapes?)
One thought here is that this forebodingly reminds me of Comey’s press conference regarding the investigation into Hillary’s emails reopening a week or so before the election. Regardless of what’s now revealed as true or false, the right-wing propagandists are going to run wild with Mueller’s statement.
For those saying that now they’re on the record as supporting Mueller as a truth teller, so what? Consistency has never slowed them down a bit. They’ll return to bashing Mueller as a Democratic hack the second it suits their purposes.
Without knowing how the investigations are being conducted by each particular branch, it’s impossible for us to tell. It seems plausible that SDNY may have evidence pertaining to certain investigations that Mueller’s team does not, and vice versa. Hopefully some lawyers or people otherwise more knowledgeable can chime in soon on these possibilities.
“Not accurate” could mean that certain details are off, but the basic gist of the story is true. We just don’t know and it’s time Congress found out.
Mueller is obviously pissed about the leak, but it should also be noted that he did not say it was “false” or “wrong”. I think he is pissed because he wants to ask the President about this, and if it is confirmed Trump can plead the Fifth and not perjure himself. Hopefully this statement might make the Prez feel comfortable lying about this questions. No one knows for sure the whole story, but this was clearly not a flat out denial of the entire report.
Yes they will. In the meantime, Mueller has put Drumpf back on his heels in ways that have been demonstrated. In fact, I almost hope that Drumpf takes the bait and goes full idiot and puts his foot in his mouth.
I agree that it’s not a denial of all facts.
Disagree, it’s time to just let Mueller continue. Congress should stay out of these aspects of the investigation because they can jeopardize it.
Cool your jets. It seems silly to criticize other people for jumping to conclusions when you’re doing the exact same thing regarding Mueller’s loyalty to the Republican Party over his country.
I’m really eager to read Khyber’s<sp?> take on it.