Well again I think the phrase "My family" is probably spin in itself. Cummins can say he meant his wife and son rather than his extended family and claim later he didn't know his father had spoken to them. Stretching it but not impossible. These people are trained to wriggle.
I know a person who is a top executive in an International company and she said the first thing she learned was how to not answer questions. Politicians and their ilk probably did the same course.