Lanny Davis, the attorney for Michael Cohen, says he was suggesting to CNN reporters that they investigate whether or not Donald Trump had advance knowledge of the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, he wasn't confirming the story to them.

'I was unsure about the issue of the Trump Tower meeting. And I thought that there were other people that could have been in the room, and that it was up to journalists to go look at that,' he told Fox News Channel's 'Media Buzz' on Sunday.

He added he was never sure in who knew of the meeting but should have been clearer.

'I was never sure in my confirmation. I was uncertain. And, in fact, I expressed my uncertainty, but not clear enough,' he said.

Lanny Davis said he wanted CNN reporters to investigate whether Trump had advanced knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting, he wasn't confirming the story

President Trump has gotten into a war of words with CNN and Davis on the story

Davis said he blamed himself for the confusion and not the network nor reporters Carl Bernstein or Jim Sciutto.

'So I can understand that they interpreted what I said as a confirmation, and have not blamed CNN. I have blamed myself for not being more clear that, in my mind, I did not know the details about that meeting, and I should not have encouraged any reporter,' he said.

'In my mind I did not know the details of that meeting and I should not have encouraged any reporter,' he added.

Davis was asked to clarify once and for all whether Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, had any knowledge of whether the president knew of the Trump Tower meeting in advance.

He declined to give a straight answer.

'I can't tell you what Mr. Cohen has told me except to say to you I'm not sure he did and that it requires additional reporting and I'm not sure he did not,' Davis said.

A bitter war of words has escalated in the past week between Trump, CNN and Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein over the story.

Trump has raged about the piece that claimed he knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, which featured Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his then-campaign manager Paul Manafort talking to a Russian lawyer who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Trump lashed out at CNN on Wednesday, saying it had been caught in a 'major lie' after Davis admitted to being a source for the claims that he then backtracked.

Trump said 'CNN is being torn apart from within' over the article, while blasting Bernstein as 'sloppy' and a 'degenerate fool... who lives in the past'.

Bernstein and the network slapped back, saying they stood by their reporting and would not be cowed by attacks from the president.

Donald Trump stepped up his attacks on CNN over a story that claimed he had advanced knowledge of a Trump Tower meeting between his son and a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton during the election

The President accused CNN of being caught in a 'major lie and refusing to admit the mistake', while accusing Bernstein of being a 'degenerate fool' who 'lives in the past'

In a direct response to Trump, CNN said it stood by its reporting before adding: 'There are many fools in this story but Carl Bernstein is not one of them'

Bernstein also responded to Trump's attack, saying he would not be dissuaded from 'bringing the truth to light' with taunting

In a strongly-worded statement issued on Trump's preferred media of Twitter, CNN said: 'Make no mistake, Mr. President, CNN does not lie. 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 Carl Bernstein is not one of them.'

Meanwhile Bernstein tweeted: 'I have spent my life as a journalist bringing the truth to light, through administrations of both parties.

'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.'

The saga began when CNN ran a report last month claiming that Cohen, Trump's long-time personal lawyer, had evidence that Donald Trump knew in advance about a meeting between his son and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 election.

Trump Jr. has admitted to taking the meeting after the lawyer offered him dirt on Hillary Clinton, and the suggestion that the candidate knew about the meeting indicated that he might have been in on alleged collusion.

Cohen was willing to testify to the claim to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported, citing anonymous sources.

But Davis admitted to BuzzFeed News this week that he was a source for that story, and could not verify the claims that he made.

CNN's report also claimed that Davis had declined to comment on the record, effectively giving him cover to talk extensively on background.

The debacle caught the attention of Trump, who claimed on Wednesday that anonymous sources are typically 'fiction made up' by 'Enemy of the People' reporters.

'The fact is that many anonymous sources don't even exist. They are fiction made up by the Fake News reporters,' the president tweeted.

President Trump leaped at the chance on Wednesday to harangue the media for a debacle involving Michael Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis

Lanny Davis (above) has backpedaled on several key claims he made as an 'anonymous source' to news oulets, severely undermining the possibility that Cohen could tie President Trump to claims of Russian election interference

Cohen (above) pleaded guilty last week to several charges, which Davis says allowed him to finally speak out to clarify what he said as an anonymous source, now that the criminal investigation is ended

Trump claimed in a tweet Wednesday that anonymous sources are typically 'fiction made up' by 'Enemy of the People' reporters, even though Davis admits to making the claims he says he can no longer back up

'Look at the lie that Fake CNN is now in. They got caught red handed! Enemy of the People!'

A follow-up tweet claimed: 'When you see 'anonymous source,' stop reading the story, it is fiction!'

Davis says that he couldn't clear the record until Cohen pleaded guilty last week, because of the ongoing criminal investigation.

CNN says it had other sources as well.

In a series of interviews, Davis backpedaled two assertions: that Cohen saw Trump being advised beforehand of the notorious Trump Tower meeting and that Cohen could testify that Trump was aware of Russian hacking.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has also made incorrect claims about the Trump Tower meeting and admitted in a New York Times profile this week to making mistakes in his unpaid representation of the president.

Former Trump attorney John Dowd said Wednesday on Fox News that Davis' conduct, which sparked a debate about how sourcing is handled by news agencies, was 'despicable' and 'indicative' of what Trump is up against.

'I don't know how he does it,' he said. 'It's a great burden on the presidency.'

Slamming Davis, a longtime defender of former President Bill Clinton, Down said: 'Lanny Davis is no surprise, I don't know why anybody would find him credible in the first place.'

Davis and Cohen's lack of credibility is at the heart of Trump's lawyers claims that Trump should not be charged as a co-conspirator in crimes that his ex-attorney says they committed together. Cohen told prosecutors that he paid off a woman who says she had sex with the married billionaire prior to the 2016 election on a direct order.

The CNN report, which received prime-time play on the network, raised the possibility that Cohen had and was willing to offer the special counsel additional, damaging information on Trump.

Top CNN reporters Jim Sciutto, Marshall Cohen and Carl Bernstein of Watergate reporting fame had bylines on the story.

Other outlets that raced to confirm the CNN scoop in July, including the New York Post and Washington Post, have now admitted that Davis was their source, and published the lawyer's apology for misleading them.

'I regret that I wasn't clear enough to The Post. I should have been more clear. I could not independently confirm the information in the CNN story,' Davis told the New York paper. 'I regret my error.'

Davis is also backing down from suggestions he made on television after Cohen's guilty plea about what his client could tell Mueller about Russian hacking during the 2016 campaign and allegations that Trump knew about it before it became public.

CNN is standing by its July report (above) that said Cohen was willing to testify that Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting in advance

Davis told CNN that 'Cohen was an observer and was a witness to Mr. Trump's awareness of those emails before they were dropped,' Davis told the Washington Post, 'There's a possibility that is the case. But I am not sure.'

Giuliani and another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, have also delivered incorrect information to the public.

Sekulow wrongly claimed that the president was not involved in a false statement that Trump was said to have dictated on Air Force One about his son's meeting at Trump Tower.

He admitted in an ABC News interview that he 'had bad information' and realized 'over time' that the claim he made was incorrect.

Giuliani wrongly told NBC News this month that he didn't know if participants in the meeting, including Trump Jr, ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, knew that lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya 'was Russian at the time.'

'All they had was her name,' Giuliani in the interview said.

In fact, emails released by the president's son make clear that he was explicitly told an attendee at the meeting would be a 'Russian government attorney' who wanted to provide damaging information to the campaign about Hillary Clinton.

Donald Trump Jr. attacked CNN as 'literal fake news' after it Davis revealed he was the source for the misinformation on what Cohen was willing to testify. The president's son also claimed that Bernstein is a 'leftist hack.'

President Trump has denied claims that he knew about the Trump Tower meeting before it took place. He tore into news outlets that promoted Davis' claims in tweets on Saturday and Wednesday.

'Michaels Cohen's attorney clarified the record, saying his client does not know if President Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting (out of which came nothing!),' Trump said in the Saturday tweet. 'The answer is that I did NOT know about the meeting. Just another phony story by the Fake News Media!'

He similarly ripped the 'fake news' on Wednesday for masking Davis' identity by allowing him to act as an anonymous source while saying in the same article that he refused to comment on the record.