Trump says grateful to Mueller for BuzzFeed statement

U.S. President Donald Trump walks to talk to the media, ahead of his departure to Dover, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was grateful to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for a statement disputing a BuzzFeed News report that Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal.

"I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was very appropriate that they did so," Trump told reporters at the White House. "I think that the BuzzFeed piece was a disgrace to our country. It was a disgrace to journalism."

The statement by Mueller's office on Friday evening disputed key elements of the BuzzFeed report.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Daniel Wallis)