![]() ![]() Flynn resigned when the truth became evident. Others in the administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, also denied it. McFarland to deny it to the Post, "although she knew she was providing false information." Mueller said that Trump put out word that he wanted Flynn to kill the story, and that Flynn ordered aide K.T. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported before Trump's inauguration that Flynn had talked to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions placed on Russia by the outgoing Obama administration. "They were meticulously reported, carefully sourced and accurate stories that told readers what was really going on at the White House." "The Mueller report confirmed again and again that stories in The New York Times for the past two years were the opposite of 'fake news,'" said Elisabeth Bumiller, the paper's Washington bureau chief. Mueller's report also backed up the newspaper's stories, which the administration denied at the time, that Trump demanded loyalty from then-FBI Director James Comey at a private dinner, and that Trump had asked Comey to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump's counsel repeatedly responded that the president had no role in writing the statement, yet months later testified under oath to investigators that Trump had dictated it. In a July 2017 story, the Times reported that the president personally wrote a statement in which he falsely said that an election year meeting between some Russians and his son, Donald Jr., was about the adoption of Russian children, rather than about obtaining potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton's campaign. McGahn refused, saying the story was accurate, the report found. ![]() The Mueller report also showed that Trump directed a series of aides to ask McGahn to publicly deny the story, and ultimately asked himself, too. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez files paperwork to enter 2024 GOP presidential race When the Times first reported the story, Trump described it as "fake news, folks, fake news." Trump's supporters believe that Mueller's determination that there was not enough evidence to show that the president or his team worked with the Russians to influence the 2016 election delegitimizes the attention given to the story.įox News Channel's Laura Ingraham message to the news media: "You owe us an apology."īut the news stories were, for the great part, accurate.įor instance, Mueller's report shows The New York Times and The Washington Post were correct when they reported in January 2018 that Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to make sure Mueller was fired, and that McGahn decided to resign rather than carry that out. "The media looks a lot stronger today than it did before the release of this report," Kyle Pope, editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, said Friday. While there are a few exceptions, Mueller's investigation repeatedly supports news reporting that was done on the Russia probe over the last two years and details several instances where the president and his team sought to mislead the public. President Donald Trump and his team love to deride unfavorable stories as "fake news," but it's clear from Robert Mueller's report that the special counsel isn't buying it. ![]()
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