NBC News investigative reporter Tom Winter reported earlier today that federal investigators had wire tapped the phone of Pres. Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, and were able to listen in on conversations associated with phone lines from Cohen. Winter had cited two separate sources “with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Mr. Cohen” in his reporting.
If true, that’s pretty big news. But it didn’t turn out to be true, and NBC News had to issue a correction this afternoon after “three senior U.S. officials disputed that.”
Winter and NBC News then stated that there was actually no wiretap, but rather a “pen register,” which essentially means that federal investigators were monitoring Cohen’s phone calls by keeping a call log of them; but they weren’t actually listening in on those conversations.
There’s obviously a difference between tapping someone’s phones and keeping a log of their calls, though pen registers can be used to eventually obtain a wiretap if enough evidence is there.
Winter joined Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s MTP Daily to explain what exactly had happened.
CORRECTION: Feds have pen-register, not wiretap on Michael Cohen pic.twitter.com/gXLckdKPeX
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 3, 2018
Here’s Winter first reporting what he thought was a scoop MSNBC earlier today:
EXCLUSIVE: Federal investigators have wiretapped the phone lines of Michael Cohen, sources confirm to NBC News pic.twitter.com/8q3GveTHt7
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 3, 2018
ABC also corrected their reporting from earlier:
CORRECTION: FBI is monitoring phone numbers for calls made and received by Michael Cohen—not listening to contents of conversations, sources familiar with investigation now say. [Earlier tweet deleted]
— ABC News (@ABC) May 3, 2018