NPR published a completely fake story Friday stating that Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony to the Senate about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow conflicted with Michael Cohen’s claims about the same project in his plea deal Thursday. The author Phillip Ewing suggested Don Jr. was a liar.
A transcript from Trump Jr.’s Sept. 7, 2017 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee shows that he claimed the Trump Organization ceased pursuing a deal to build Trump Tower in Moscow in by the end of 2014, NPR reported.
The news organization quoted Trump Jr. as saying that the project “faded away” by “the end of ’14.” But, what they neglected to add is that Don Jr. was referring to a deal with the Agalarovs. He was also asked if a deal was in the works in 2015/2016 and he said “yes”.
As The Federalist’s Sean Davis noted on Twitter, this entire story is a lie. Trump, Jr. was explicitly asked whether the Trump Organization was pursuing a plan to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow in 2016. His answer: “Yes.” He even offered to give the 2015 LOI signed by Trump to Judiciary investigators.
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Sean Davis added correctly that what NPR’s fake story revealed is how many self-styled Trump/Russia experts don’t actually know a thing about the facts of the story. They’ve read none of the transcripts, none of the source documents, all the while smugly posing as authorities.
Or, we might suggest, they just lie and don’t care about facts.
It took them FIVE HOURS to issue a correction and many in the media and in the Democratic Party are still acting as if it were a factual story.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this report mischaracterized an answer Donald Trump Jr. gave to Senate investigators in 2017 about the prospective projects his family was negotiating with people in Moscow.
The story reported that Trump Jr.’s response — that negotiations on one project concluded by the end of 2014 — contrasted with the version of events as laid out in the guilty plea by Michael Cohen on Thursday. In fact, Trump Jr. and investigators were alluding to a different set of negotiations — not to a deal that Cohen was reportedly pursuing. Trump Jr. did acknowledge in his testimony that Cohen and another man were exploring a possible deal in Moscow in 2015 or 2016.
Trump Jr. did not address what Cohen has now admitted — that talks about such a deal continued at least into June 2016, longer than previously known and well into the presidential campaign.
Unfortunately, the fake story is still making the rounds. People are taking clips of Trump officials and Don Jr. comments completely out of context.
Donald Jr. tweeted in response:
“I guess this is as close as I’ll get to an apology where yet another ‘bombshell’ bites the dust,” Trump Jr. sarcastically tweeted a couple hours after the left-wing outlet issued its correction.
“Pro tip: don’t just rush to publish anything thinking that it’s the got ya you so desperately want it to be. CNN has the market cornered on that… let them own it.”
I guess this is as close as I’ll get to an apology where yet another “bombshell” bites the dust.
Pro tip: don’t just rush to publish anything thinking that it’s the got ya you so desperately want it to be. CNN has the market cornered on that… let them own it 👍 https://t.co/mtmXp6O8GW
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 30, 2018
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