President Trump blasted CNN on Saturday over a mistake in its report which wrongly claimed his son Donald Jr. received hacked DNC files before they were made public, describing the error as ‘vicious and purposeful’.
In his weekly early-morning flurry of tweets at around 8am, the president fumed: ‘Fake News CNN made a vicious and purposeful mistake yesterday.
‘They were caught red handed, just like lonely Brian Ross at ABC News (who should be immediately fired for his “mistake”). Watch to see if fires those responsible, or was it just gross incompetence?’
In a second tweet moments later, he continued: ‘CNN’S slogan is CNN, THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS.
President Trump lashed out at CNN in two tweets on Saturday morning after the network corrected a false report which claimed Donald Jr. received hacked WikiLeaks files from the DNC 10 days before they were public
‘Everyone knows this is not true, that this could, in fact, be a fraud on the American Public. There are many outlets that are far more trusted than Fake News CNN.
Their slogan should be CNN, THE LEAST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS!’
His outrage was prompted by a now corrected story based on source information which claimed Donald Jr. received hacked WikiLeaks file in encrypted form on September 4, 2016, a week before the rest of the world.
CNN reporters Manu Raj and Jeremy Herb said they spoke with several sources who confirmed the date.
They were never shown the email, but their sources described it and said it included a decryption key for him to access the files.
The email came to Don Jr. from a mysterious ‘Mike Eckerson’ who no one has been able to identify or confirm as a real person since. CBS followed up on the story and made the same claim – that the email was sent on September 4.
It was published on Friday after being discussed in the Senate House Intelligence Committee two days earlier.
Once the CNN story had been published however, The Washington Post revealed it to be wrong.
Having actually seen the email for themselves, they revealed that it was in fact sent on September 14 – by which point the files were already in the public domain and being spoken about online.
This is the email Trump Jr. received on September 14, 2016. It included a link to encrypted files and reference to files hacked from Democrat Colin Powell
CNN claimed on Friday that Donald Trump Jr. received il on September 4, 2016, which contained a link to encrypted files which had been hacked from the DNC
CNN reporter Manu Raj said he spoke with several sources who all dated the email September 4. Neither he nor Jeremy Herb, who worked with him on the story, actually saw the email themselves
CNN corrected its version of the story but has stuck by the sources who misinformed them, saying their mistake was unintentional.
‘CNN’s initial reporting of the date on an email sent to members of the Trump campaign about Wikileaks documents, which was confirmed by two sources to CNN, was incorrect.
‘We have updated our story to include the correct date, and present the proper context for the timing of email,’ a spokesman said.
But their refusal to retract the story or discipline Raj and Herb has been met with ire from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who agreed with the president’s characterization of the network.
The email was actually sent on September 14, a day after WikiLeaks announced the files on its Twitter account
CNN corrected its report but did not retract it or apologize for it. They said their sources were mistaken and not intentionally misleading
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is among those to have hit out at CNN for the mistake
He repeated the president’s characterization of it as ‘fake news’ and labeled it a ‘bombshell’
‘Hoaxers are not sources. Sources provide information they believe to be true,’ he said.
Don Jr. was just as irate.
‘Does anyone actually believe that CNN’s democratic sources, who had all the info, were not deliberately trying to hide facts that would turn a non-story into their exact BS narrative?
‘No one is that naive!!! I’m sure they wouldn’t lie to cover their prominent source,’ he said.
His lawyer Alan Futerfas early said the report and story about the email was an attempt to besmirch him.
‘The email was never read or responded to — and the House Intelligence Committee knows this.
Trump Jr dismissed the network’s claims that the mistake was innocent
‘It is profoundly disappointing that members of the House Intelligence Committee would deliberately leak a document, with the misleading suggestion that the information was not public, when they know that there is not a scintilla of evidence that Mr. Trump Jr. read or responded to the email,’ he said.
In his tweet on Saturday, Trump also made reference to suspended ABC reporter Brian Ross and his erroneous report last week that Michael Flynn planned to testify that the president ordered him to make contact with Russian officials when he was still a presidential candidate and had not yet been elected.
Ross used source information to back up the report.
ABC has since apologized and corrected it to make clear that Flynn was asked to make the contact after the president had won and was acting in as the president-elect.
Flynn last week pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators over his contact with Russian officials and will now cooperate with Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Trump’s comments on Saturday morning come after a rousing speech in Pensacola on Friday night where he hit out at the ‘fake news’ media and urged crowds to vote for accused sexual harasser Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race.
The president spoke on Friday night at a rally in Pensacola, Florida, to implore crowds to vote for Alabama Senate hopeful Roy Moore