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:
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:
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.'”