Fake News: BREAKING: Michael Cohen NOT Caught On Tape Colluding With Hillary Clinton

Fact Check

  • by: Alan Duke
Fake News: BREAKING: Michael Cohen NOT Caught On Tape Colluding With Hillary Clinton

President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen -- AKA "The Fixer" -- is reportedly ready to tell investigators that Trump knew and approved of the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians promising dirt on opponent Hillary Clinton. In response to that real news, social media is flooded with fake stories discrediting Cohen and connecting him to the Clintons.

Here is one such very fake story on a website that specializes in trolling Trump supporters with satrical posts they may fall for as real. We can confirm that Cohen has not been indicted for treason in a conspiracy to sell Trump secrets to Hillary Clinton. It is an article published on July 27, 2018 titled "BREAKING: Michael Cohen Caught On Tape Colluding With Hillary Clinton" (archived here) which opened:

Former Trump attorney and liar, Michael Cohen, was indicted this morning for conspiracy to commit treason after he was caught on tape trying to sell Trump information to the Clinton campaign.

Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:

BREAKING: Michael Cohen Caught On Tape Colluding With Hillary Clinton

Former Trump attorney and liar, Michael Cohen, was indicted this morning for conspiracy to commit treason after he was caught on tape trying to sell Trump information to the Clinton campaign.

The site comes with a clear satire disclaimer at the bottom of each article:

sat·ire ~ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
If you disagree with the definition of satire or have decided it is synonymous with "comedy," you should really just move along.

The owner and main writer of the site is self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has made it his full time job to troll gullible conservatives and Trump supporters into liking and sharing his articles. He runs several other websites, including potatriotpost.us, dailyworldupdate.us and nofakenewsonline.us. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll". A second man working on the sites is John Prager as revealed in this earlier story we wrote.

Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up and he keeps knocking them down.

If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.

We wrote about americaslastlineofdefense.org before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Alan Duke

Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke co-founded Lead Stories after ending a 26-year career with CNN, where he mainly covered entertainment, current affairs and politics. Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. CNN moved Duke to Los Angeles in 2009 to cover the entertainment beat. Duke also co-hosted a daily podcast with former HLN host Nancy Grace, "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and hosted the podcast series "Stan Lee's World: His Real Life Battle with Heroes & Villains." You'll also see Duke in many news documentaries, including on the Reelz channel, CNN and HLN.

Read more about or contact Alan Duke

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