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On References In The Mueller Report To Evidence Of Lying

There is evidence in the Mueller report that the president asked some aides to lie about his actions.

When reporting about this, frame it as "evidence," not proof, that the aides were "asked to lie." And attribute the evidence to Mueller's investigation.

Meanwhile, as we have said before, accusing someone of being a "liar" or of having "lied" requires careful thought and needs to be approved by newsroom leaders (DMEs and above). Along with the issue of proof, there are questions of intent and knowledge that need to be vetted.

An admission is something to consider when debating whether to label something a lie. Mueller reports that White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told investigators she had no basis for saying at a briefing that "countless members of the FBI" had lost faith in former director James Comey. She called it a "slip of the tongue," but her admission makes it appropriate to say she "lied."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.