Lanny Davis - the attorney for Michael Cohen, has massively backpedaled on "confident assertions" that Cohen would share information with investigators that President Trump knew of Russian efforts to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton - a lifelong friend of Davis'. 

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that Davis said in an interview that he is "no longer certain about claims he made to reporters on background and on the record in recent weeks about what Cohen knows about Trump's awareness of the Russian efforts." 

Davis told The Washington Post that he cannot confirm media reports that Cohen is prepared to tell special counsel Robert S. Mueller III that Trump had advance knowledge of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting -WaPo

CNN reported in July that Cohen claimed to have witnessed Trump approving the meeting between Trump Jr. and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, arranged by an associate of opposition research firm Fusion GPS. 

The day after CNN's report, the Washington Post - using an "anonymous source" they now admit was Davis, peddled the same story that "Cohen had told associates that he witnessed an exchange in which Trump Jr. told his father about an upcoming gathering in which he expected to get information about Clinton," however the Post didn't say Trump Jr. told Sr. it was the Russians.

"I should have been more clear — including with you — that I could not independently confirm what happened," Davis said, adding perhaps the most difficult four words for an attorney to utter: "I regret my error."

In the past week, when asked directly by CNN's Anderson Cooper whether there was information that Trump knew about his son's meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya beforehand, Davis said, "No, there's not."

In a statement Saturday, a CNN spokeswoman said, "We stand by our story, and are confident in our reporting of it." -WaPo