Trump Threatens Legal Action after Lawrence O’Donnell Accuses Him of Working with Russian Oligarchs

Update 4:36p.m.: In a Wednesday afternoon tweet drafted hours after Trump's legal threat went public, O'Donnell admitted that he made a “error in judgment” in publicly accusing the president of co-signing loans with Russian oligarchs and promised to address the issue on his program.> 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, 2019President Trump's attorney sent a letter to NBCUniversal Wednesday threatening the company with legal action in response to what he charged was an unfounded claim made on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell the previous night.In the demand letter, which was obtained by the the Hollywood Reporter, Trump attorney Charles Harder threatens to file a defamation suit against NBCUniversal if the company refuses to retract O'Donnell's claim that Russian oligarchs co-signed a series of loans Deutsche Bank extended to Trump.“The Program and Tweet make the false and defamatory statements that 'Russian oligarchs' co-signed loans provided to Mr. Trump by Deutsche Bank, and described these 'co-signers' as 'Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin,'” the letter reads.Harder argues that the accusation is easily disproven and suggests the network neglected its due diligence out of a desire to tar a political enemy.“The only borrowers under these loans are Trump entities, and Mr. Trump is the only guarantor,” the letter continues. “Numerous documents for each of these loans are also recorded, publicly available and searchable online. Thus, actual malice can easily be proven based on your reckless disregard of the truth and unreasonable reliance on an alleged 'source' who you will not even identify in your story and likely is seeking to mislead you and the public for political reasons or other ulterior motives.”O'Donnell raised the Deutsche Bank loans during his Tuesday night program in the context of House Democrats' ongoing legal battle to secure records from the bank. The White House has resisted a congressional subpoena for the documents on the grounds that there is no legitimate legislative purpose that would justify such a demand.White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham lambasted O'Donnell Wednesday for publishing a single-sourced, unverified claim that would have profound implications if true.“This is one of the reasons that a majority of Americans have lost trust in the media. Instead of applying ethics and standards to their reporting, journalists and left-wing outlets have weaponized the media, using it to attack and harass people with little to no regard for the truth,” Grisham told Fox News.Critics of the president have speculated that Trump or one of his allies had some leverage over Deutsche Bank that allowed the Trump organization to continue procuring loans from the institution for projects that all other major banks refused to support.NBCUniversal did not respond to a request for comment by press time and NBC News had not, as of the time of this writing, published any article supporting O'Donnell's claims.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/346CqrB

Asian-American Students Suing Harvard Over Affirmative Action Win Justice Dept. Support - New York Times

New York Times Asian-American Students Suing Harvard Over Affirmative Action Win Justice Dept. Support New York Times The Johnston gate frames the entrance to Harvard Yard.CreditCreditHadley Green for The New York Times. By Katie Benner. Aug. 30, 2018. 阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版. WASHINGTON — The Justice Department lent its support on Thursday to students ... Justice Department criticizes Harvard admissions in case alleging bias against Asian Americans Washington Post Justice Department Says Harvard Hurts Asian Americans' Admissions Prospects With 'Personal Rating' Wall Street Journal Harvard admissions 'may be infected with racial bias,' DOJ says The Boston Globe Inside Higher Ed - NPR - CNN - Forbes all 292 news articles » from Top Stories - Google News https://ift.tt/2oqpRnk

The US father-son duo accused of masterminding Ghosn's Japan escape

The American men accused of smuggling former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn out of Japan are a former US special forces operative who spent time in prison and his football-playing son. On the surface, Michael Taylor, 59, and Peter Taylor, 27, appeared to be living a quintessential American middle-class life in the small, wealthy town of Harvard, Massachusetts. from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2AI9Qm5

Israel is the first country to warn its citizens not to travel abroad over coronavirus fears

Israel on Wednesday became the first country to officially warn its citizens to avoid any international travel amid fears over the coronavirus outbreak.Several airlines have canceled flights to China, where the respiratory virus originated, and governments have issued warnings about travel to certain countries, but no country has actively urged their citizens avoid traveling abroad at large until now. "If you don't genuinely have to fly — don't do so," Israel's health ministry said in a statement.Although the majority of cases remain in China, the virus has spread to several other countries. In response to criticism that the country was stoking panic and could cause both economic and diplomatic damage, the health ministry said they'd rather deal with the inconveniences now than be sorry later, The Times of Israel reports.The only confirmed Israeli cases so far involve people who were on a cruise ship that was quarantined in Japan, although South Korea — which ...

NEWS Alerts

Search This Blog