Donald Trump denies that he tried to influence the widening Michael Cohen investigation

Trump denied the story at the White House Tuesday afternoon, referring to the Times report as "more fake news" and saying that he had a "very good" relationship with Whitaker, who was replaced last week by William Barr.

"I have a lot of respect for Mr. Whitaker. I think he's done a great job," Trump said. He said Whitaker was "a very fine man, and he should be given a lot of thanks by our nation."

Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec referred to testimony Whitaker gave to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.

The New York Times wrote a story today accusing Trump of trying to get his Acting AG to replace the US attorney in charge of Cohen’s case:

Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investigation, according to several American officials with direct knowledge of the call.

Mr. Whitaker, who had privately told associates that part of his role at the Justice Department was to “jump on a grenade” for the president, knew he could not put Mr. Berman in charge because Mr. Berman had already recused himself from the investigation. The president soon soured on Mr. Whitaker, as he often does with his aides, and complained about his inability to pull levers at the Justice Department that could make the president’s many legal problems go away.

Trump was just asked about it in his brief Q&A with reporters:

Trump’s response was “No, not at all. I don’t know who gave you that. That’s more fake news. There’s a lot of fake news out there. No I didn’t.”

He was then asked about his relationship with Whitaker and he had nothing but nice things to say about Whitaker.

Reading the NY Times accusation sounds true enough. They say it’s based on multiple officials with direct knowledge of the call. But then don’t these accusations always sound like they’re true when you read them in print like this?

Trump has denied accusations like this in the past and then been vindicated later when the truth came out.

And this is why I chose not to run this story to begin with when I saw it plastered all over CNN. I just don’t believe them anymore. They are too interested in creating scandal around Trump that will dominate the news cycle for a few days.