Thread by @JoePCunningham

So, here is where I am on the BuzzFeed story. Bear with me a moment as I try to lay this out as best as I can.

BuzzFeed News drops a major story at 10:11 p.m. Thursday night. The story claims that there is evidence Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress. The story bases this claim on information given to them by two unnamed sources.

The story isn't about what Cohen is claiming. The sources are saying Cohen told Mueller this and it was backed up in Mueller's interviews with folks from the Trump Organization.

There's two red flags for me. Unnamed sources and Mueller talking to Trump Organization people. The latter is a flag because that in and of itself is a major story that no one else had broken. redstate.com/joesquire/2019…

You even had an executive producer from ABC say none of their folks had heard anything like that, and no other outlet has verified it with their own sources. That's not to say BuzzFeed isn't capable of beating those outlets, but it seems like a major development.

Next, I am wary of any story with Jason Leopold's name attached. He has a history that, strangely enough, involves federal investigations, unnamed sources, and documentation that isn't provided within the stories he writes.

Here's Leopold's past with the truth. It's a rocky past at best. redstate.com/joesquire/2019…

To complement the past, Leopold in one interview appears to contradict his co-author, Anthony Cormier. Cormier told CNN they hadn't seen documents, Leopold says they had.

Maybe they were referencing different things, but the lack of clarity is troubling at best.

At this point, all the warning signs are there:
1. Confirmation Bias
2. Unnamed/Anonymous Sourcing
3. No Documentation
4. Writer With A History Of Making Things Up

And yet, the bigger issue here is the claim itself. It is too big a claim to simply dismiss. If there is any truth to it whatsoever, then it's a major problem for Trump. So, I can't just pan it as "fake news."

What I do know is this: There is nothing that we can really take at face value until the investigation is done, and nothing short of a full, unredacted release of Mueller's report will satisfy the hunger for truth we're all feeling right now.

In other words, only Mueller can set us free. That is too much power for one man to wield, but here we are. redstate.com/joesquire/2019…

One last thing: I am not saying the story isn't true or that I don't believe it. What I am saying is that there is so much to consider that I am hesitant to render judgment. I am merely explaining the alarms that are going off in my head about the story.