FACTS FIRST: Lanny Davis outs himself as CNN's anonymous source on Trump Tower meeting

We mentioned earlier today that BuzzFeed News is going to add a donate button to its articles, and we’re now wondering if that button might be worth a click or two. On Monday night, BuzzFeed reported that Michael Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, admitted he was CNN’s source for its Trump Tower meeting story.

Oh, and he lied about it on air the week before.

Lanny Davis has told BuzzFeed News that he was an anonymous source for CNN's Trump Tower bombshell, a story he now disputes. He also regrets lying about his involvement, on CNN's own air, in an interview with Anderson Cooper last week https://t.co/gUO3piTM0V

— Steven Perlberg (@perlberg) August 28, 2018

Michael Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis tells ⁦@perlberg⁩ he was a source for CNN story and that he lied about it being a source on air with CNN before he said the story’s info was wrong. Amazing. https://t.co/XNCluOV2MW

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 28, 2018

Steven Perlberg writes:

Attorney Lanny Davis says he was an anonymous source in a July CNN story that reported his client, Michael Cohen, had privately claimed that President Trump had advance knowledge of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between his son and Russians — contradicting Davis’s own words on CNN’s air last week.

In the story, Cohen was reported to claim he had personally witnessed Donald Trump Jr. informing then-candidate Trump about the June 2016 meeting. Such a claim from Cohen would directly contradict Trump’s statements about his knowledge of the meeting, where Russians were set to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton.

…

Last week, Davis told Anderson Cooper, “I think the reporting of the story got mixed up in the course of a criminal investigation. We were not the source of the story.”

Lanny Davis said he was a source who lied to CNN. That’s on him.

But CNN in the story in question wrote “one of Cohen's attorneys, Lanny Davis, declined to comment.”

That means CNN might have misled readers about talking to Davis. Thats a bigger problem than a source-burn https://t.co/l7BXtzHU6m

— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 28, 2018

There are possible (though perhaps flimsy) explanations about what happened. Davis obviously has an honesty problem. But CNN now needs to explain how it did NOT mislead its audience in suggesting Davis didn’t speak to them when, in fact, he apparently did.

— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) August 28, 2018

Once a mudslinger, always a mudslinger. – but CNN is "standing by their story" — even when the source openly admits he lied about it. https://t.co/vmABWIJFuH

— Sandy (@RightGlockMom) August 28, 2018

#FakeNewsCNN stands by the story w/ Lanny Davis as the anonymous source that wasn’t, but was, and he lied but still that’s ok because they are confident in the reporting that was false and was publicly refuted by the source. Ok? Got it! ? https://t.co/DwsDOTYGOd

— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) August 28, 2018

Can't wait to see @ReliableSources this week, which will focus on…

something else https://t.co/8EeYBMixaS

— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) August 28, 2018

CNN used Lanny as an anonymous source while stating in the same story that he declined to comment. They lied.

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) August 28, 2018

Looking forward to @brianstelter pretending this doesn't exist next Sunday. https://t.co/KcG82DERfz

— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) August 28, 2018

Slow clap guys… @oliverdarcy @brianstelter pic.twitter.com/X9xvf0n30e

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) August 28, 2018

Can’t wait to see how you guys blame critics pouncing on this one

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) August 28, 2018

Stelter & Darcy stood by a debunked story when they knew Davis was the source and then attempted to blame their critics. Guessing @CNNPR will be handling this one from here on out. @oliverdarcy @brianstelter

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) August 28, 2018

Yes, we’re very interested to hear more from CNN.

.@brianstelter Turns Out Lanny Davis was not…

(•_•) /

( •_•)>⌐■-■ /

(⌐■_■)

…A reliable source https://t.co/NXgtn8D1xg

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) August 28, 2018

Wow.

This is what @CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy so condescendingly wrote about this story in the Reliable Sources newsletter last night:

“The critics don’t know who CNN’s sources were.” https://t.co/nVnsXzj8tH

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) August 28, 2018

Well now we know that at least one of their sources lied to the media about what his client knew about the Trump Tower meeting.

Also, despite allegedly using Lanny as an anonymous source, @CNN also separately claimed that he denied to comment on the story.

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) August 28, 2018

This whole thing is reminiscent of CNN's botched Trump Jr../Wikileaks bombshell when two separate sources apparently told them the wrong date that Trump Jr. received an email from Wikileaks.

— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) August 28, 2018

Darcy didn’t know who the sources were either but that didn’t stop him from parroting the network line like he’s paid to do https://t.co/fTiD8uLeVq

— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) August 28, 2018

CNN will continue to jump the shark, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, in the hopes that one day their breaking story will bring Trump down. They don't care how wrong they are…..until then!

— cubswin (@packerjack11) August 28, 2018

https://twitter.com/Kevikev2000/status/1034253245961723905

No doubt.

I get it now, Stelter named his show Reliable Sources to be ironic and have the least reliable sources

— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) August 28, 2018

* * *

Update:

Huh … Lanny Davis’s name has vanished from the “Michael Cohen Truth Fund” GoFundMe page.

Notice anything different in Michael Cohen’s “Truth Fund” from yesterday to just now? pic.twitter.com/MluARpROHa

— LB (@beyondreasdoubt) August 28, 2018

“Truth fund.”

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.

Related:

FACEPLANT IMINENT? Brian Stelter apple-bananas himself over latest Lanny Davis-Michael Cohen reporting https://t.co/Fzh1RqoAD8

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 27, 2018