The BBC issued a correction to a story first published on May 23, 2018, that reported Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, was selling access to the president for $400,000.

In their report last year — which is no longer on their website — the BBC said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko paid Cohen the amount in order to extend a meeting he had with Trump in 2017.

It turns out the meeting had already been agreed upon to be extended without such a payment:

In our News at Ten bulletin and in an online article published on 23 May 2018 we incorrectly reported that Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, had procured or authorised a corrupt payment of $400,000 to be made to Michael Cohen, the personal lawyer of Donald Trump, to extend a brief meeting between Mr Poroshenko and President Trump, that had already been agreed, into more substantial talks.

The BBC also revealed they agreed to pay damages to Poroshenko for the false report.

“We believed that the publications made a less serious allegation against Mr. Poroshenko, but in the light of a finding by the High Court that the allegation was as set out above, we are happy to accept that this allegation was untrue,” its correction said. “We apologise to Mr. Poroshenko for any distress caused and have agreed to pay him damages, legal costs and have participated in a joint statement in open court.”

[Image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

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