Buzzfeed News Bombshell Reporter: No We Have Not Seen the Evidence Supporting Our Report

Anthony Cormier is one of the two investigative reporter at BuzzfeedNews who co-authored the bombshell report published Thursday night — a report which claimed President Donald Trump directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie during Congressional testimony over discussions between the Trump Organization and Russian authorities about a Trump Tower Moscow project.

Cormier appeared on CNN’s New Day and revealed that he had not seen the evidence underlying his report.

Host Alisyn Camerota opened the interview by asking Cormier if he had seen the evidence to which Cormier replied: “No, I’ve not seen it personally.” He then clarified that “the folks we have talked to — two officials we have spoken to are fully, 100 percent read into that aspect of the Special Counsel’s investigation”

The suborning of perjury described in the report, if true, is a federal felony and the clearest evidence of obstruction of justice to date. Cormier’s admission that he had not seen the evidence of emails and texts cited in his article will certainly raise reasonable questions among Trump’s defenders and Republicans who have thus far been remarkably silent on this story since it broke Thursday night.

Despite the admission of having not seen the evidence in question, Cormier explained his sources with impressive detail.

“[Our sources] have been working the Trump Moscow tower portion of the investigation…before Mueller. So they had access to a number of different documents, 302 reports which are interview reports,” he said. “That stuff was compiled as they began to look at who the players were speaking with, how those negotiations went, who all from the Trump organization and outside the organization were involved in getting that tower set up.”

“They began to compile the evidence before Michael Cohen decided to cooperate and speak with the Special Counsel,” Cormier added.

Camerota asked Cormier of the “dubious past” of his co-author Jason Leopold who came under scrutiny for faulting reporting for Salon 2002 that led to an article getting removed. In 2006 he incorrectly reported that Karl Rove had been indicted.

“He was in trouble for perhaps claiming to have sources he really didn’t have. His stories didn’t wash. Executive directors and editors have had to apologize after some of his big blockbuster stories,” Camerota noted, before asking” How can you be certain today?”

Cormier fiercely defended his “rock solid” sourcing on this story.

“My sourcing on this goes beyond the two on the record,” Cormier told Camerota, adding “It’s 100 percent. I am the individual who confirmed and verified that it I am telling you our sourcing goes beyond the two I was able to put on the record. We were able to gather information from individuals who know this happened. ”

Watch above via CNN.