Giuliani praises Cohen’s lawyer for having ‘more integrity than CNN’
President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Saturday praised the lawyer representing Michael Cohen for retracting his previous statements to CNN about the Trump Tower meeting in 2016.
Lanny Davis, the lawyer now representing Trump’s longtime former lawyer, originally told the network that Cohen could testify that then-candidate Trump knew in advance about the meeting with his campaign officials where Russians promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
{mosads}He later retracted the statement he gave to CNN’s Carl Bernstein, saying last week that he made a “major mistake” because he wasn’t certain about Cohen’s knowledge. Cohen had previously told congressional investigators Trump did not know about the meeting.
Giuliani praised Davis, who is an opinion contributor at The Hill, for clarifying his comments. He also suggested that Cohen is making false claims. Giuliani has been on the offensive against Cohen, saying he is a “pathological liar.”
“Davis is covering for Cohen as he should. Davis did right thing in recanting,” Giuliani tweeted Saturday. “Davis has more integrity than CNN. They want to get Trump at the cost of their ever diminishing reputation.”
Giuliani has been attacking the network, calling it “Fake News Network” or “FNN” instead of CNN.
“CNN is well known as a virulent anti-Trump Fake News Network(FNN),” Giuliani tweeted early Saturday morning. “Lanny Davis says his client Cohen lied when they leaked that Pres. Trump knew about the so-called Russia meeting before it happened. Everyone has retracted but FNN. Need more proof.”
Trump stepped up his personal attacks against CNN and Bernstein this week, calling the reporter a “sloppy” man who “thinks like a degenerate fool.”
Bernstein, known for his coverage of the Nixon-era Watergate scandal, co-wrote the article claiming Trump had advance knowledge of the meeting for CNN and said he stands by his reporting and Davis was not his only source in the story.
“I have spent my life as a journalist bringing the truth to light, through administrations of both parties,” Bernstein tweeted at Trump on Wednesday. “No taunt will diminish my commitment to that mission, which is the essential role of a free press. @CNN stands by its story, and I stand by my reporting.”
CNN has also defended Bernstein’s reporting.
“Make no mistake, Mr. President, CNN does not lie,” the official Twitter account for CNN Communications tweeted late Wednesday. “We report the news. And we report when people in power tell lies. CNN stands by our reporting and our reporters. There may be many fools in this story but @carlbernstein is not one of them.”
Cohen last month pleaded guilty to eight counts involving tax fraud and illegal campaign contributions, implicating the president in his statement.