Three CNN employees have resigned after the outlet deleted a story from its website that claimed there were possible ties between Russia and an associate of President Donald Trump.
In the wake of their resignation, Donald Trump Jr is calling for CNN’s president Jeff Zucker to publicly explain, saying the story is ‘the biggest fake news scandal in the network’s history’.
Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris were all involved in CNN’s new investigative unit and left the company Monday.
Frank wrote the deleted story, Lichtblau was an editor in the unit and Haris oversaw the unit.
‘In the aftermath of the retraction of a story published on CNN.com, CNN has accepted the resignations of the employees involved in the story’s publication,’ a spokesperson said.
However, Trump Jr said the company was being hypocritical and called for CNN President Jeff Zucker to publicly explain what happened.
‘The hypocrisy at CNN is astounding,’ Trump Jr said in a statement to Breitbart News on Monday.
‘Facing the biggest fake news scandal in the network’s history after an embarrassing retraction, nobody from the network is answering questions–even to their own reporters–and they have the audacity to demand on-camera press briefings from the White House to boost their ratings and make their personalities famous?
‘Maybe Jeff Zucker should do an on-camera press briefing about CNN’s fake news scandal before the White House does any more of them.’
Haris, who had only been the executive editor of CNN Investigates since January, released a statement about his resignation on Monday.
Haris had previously been the executive editor of CNNMoney.
Haris said: ‘On Friday, CNN retracted a story published by my team. As Executive Editor of that team, I have resigned.
‘I’ve been with CNN since 2001, and am sure about one thing: This is a news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else. I am leaving, but will carry those principles wherever I go.’
Lichtblau joined CNN and the investigative team three months ago and Frank was part of the team when it began last winter.
CNN wasn’t saying Monday what led it to retract the Russia-related story.
The story reported that Congress was investigating ties of a Russian investment fund to an aide of President Trump.
The network issued a retraction after deleting the Russian ties story from its website and all social media accounts late on Friday night, just weeks after the network had to back down on a separate report about fired FBI director James Comey.
They published the claims on Thursday and cited one anonymous source.
The source had claimed congressional investigators were looking at a ‘$10-billion Russian investment fund whose chief executive met with a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team four days before Trump’s inauguration’.
CNN reported that Anthony Scaramucci – one of Trump’s transition members and a campaign adviser – had met with the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is overseen by the state-run bank, Vnesheconombank, that is currently under US sanctions.
The network published an editor’s note on its website saying the story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards. They have not given any further reason as to why the story was removed.
‘On June 22, 2017, CNN.com published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund,’ the retraction read.
‘That story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards and has been retracted. Links to the story have been disabled. CNN apologizes to Mr. Scaramucci.’
Scaramucci tweeted on Saturday: ‘@CNN did the right thing. Classy move. Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on.’