Mueller Rebukes Media Over Inaccurate Reporting

Robert Mueller

Robert Mueller has attacked the media, including The New York Times and the Washington Post, for reporting "inaccurately" on the Russia investigation.

According to BusinessInsider, the rebuke came in a court filing on Thursday, which asked a judge to issue a 19-page questionnaire to potential jurors in the special counsel's upcoming trial in Virginia against Paul Manafort.

Manafort, who's currently in jail, is the one-time Trump campaign chief at the center of the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

Mueller is preparing to face Manafort in a Virginia court on July 25, and wants to ensure that jurors aren't biased by things they've read in the media before the trial begins.

In a footnote, the special counsel singled out two stories in The New York Times and Washington Post last year, which claimed that Mueller's office had conducted "no-knock" raids of Manafort's house.

The Times cited two anonymous sources "close to the investigation" to report that FBI agents had picked the lock on Manafort's door rather than announcing their presence prior to raiding his house.

Many other news outlets, including the BBC, Vox, and Business Insider, then cited the Times report on the "no-knock" warrant at the time.

Mueller's office later denied carrying out "no-knock" raids, though had until now stopped short of attacking specific outlets over claims to the contrary.