Tuesday 27 June 2017

Three CNN journalists RESIGN over story claiming there is a link between Donald Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci and Russia

Journalists who worked on a retracted CNN story about links between Russia and a top Trump adviser are leaving the network.

The broadcaster says the three men have resigned after a report that said US Senate investigators are looking into a meeting between Anthony Scaramucci and Kirill Dmitriev.


The CNN.com article said that Scaramucci, back in January, held a secret meeting with a Russian official.

Dmitriev’s Russian Direct Investment Fund guides investments by US entities in Russia.

According to an unnamed source, Scaramucci discussed the possibility of lifting US sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Crimea at the meeting.

But Scaramucci told Fox News analyst Howard Kurtz there was no secret meeting.

He said he had given a speech on Trump’s behalf at Davos, and fund official Dmitriev approached him in a restaurant to say hello and they had a brief conversation, with no discussion of sanctions.

He said he has accepted CNN’s apology and wants to move on.

But Scaramucci also told Kurtz in an earlier interview: “I was disappointed the story was published. It was a lie.”

On Sunday an anonymous source close to the network told BuzzFeed News that the story was a “massive, massive f**k up and people will be disciplined”.

Lex Harris, executive editor of CNN’s investigative unit, was the highest-ranking official to resign.

Thomas Frank, who wrote the story, and Eric Lichtblau, who edited it, also turned in their resignations.

Lichtblau is a highly regarded reporter who spent nearly a decade and a half at the New York Times.
In the retraction, the network said the story “did not meet CNN’s editorial standards”.

The network is now requiring approval from two top editors before any Russia-related story can be published.

Last month CNN sacked a comedian who held up a fake severed head made to look like Donald Trump.

The gory stunt by Kathy Griffin reportedly led to the President’s young son Barron Trump, 11, believing his dad was dead.



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