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MSNBC’s O’Donnell Issues Statement After Trump Threatens Legal Action Over ‘Russian Cosigners’ Report
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Tuesday night reported he has a source close to Deutsche Bank who says President Donald Trump’s loans with the German financial services institution were cosigned by Russian oligarchs who are friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
O’Donnell was clear in his reporting that he had just once source. He also noted that his source said Trump pays little in taxes.
Wednesday President Donald Trump’s “personal attorney Charles Harder threatened NBCUniversal with a defamation suit over what was broadcast the previous night on MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell,” The Hollywood Reporter reported.
Trump’s attorney claimed O’Donnell made “false and defamatory statements” both on his show and in a tweet.
Late Wednesday afternoon O’Donnell’s Twitter account posted this tweet:
Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president’s finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn’t have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air. I will address the issue on my show tonight.
— Lawrence O’Donnell (@Lawrence) August 28, 2019
O’Donnell had also said during his Tuesday night show:
“If true, that would explain every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin,” as Raw Story reported. “If true, that would be a significant factor in Vladimir Putin’s publicly stated preference for presidential candidate Donald Trump over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”
News that Trump’s loans may have been cosigned by Russian oligarchs led to the hashtag #RussianCosigners trending on Twitter.
The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi tweeted out a copy of the letter from Trump’s attorney:
Just in: Attorney for @realDonaldTrump sends demand for retraction, corrctn, and apology to @nbc over segment of @Lawrence program last nite in which he said “Russian oligarchs” co-signed Deutsche Bank loans to Trump. Letter says that statement is “false and defamatory.” Letter: pic.twitter.com/HY0ZRAES5i
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) August 28, 2019
Trump has made legal threats before, “but this may be the first formal one from a sitting president,” The Hollywood Reporter notes, adding, “Should Trump actually pursue a defamation suit and it survived any initial First Amendment challenge, he’d subject himself to a discovery process months after the conclusion of the investigation by Robert Mueller — which Trump repeatedly characterized as a ‘witch hunt.'”
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