Three CNN journalists resigned Monday after the cable news network retracted a story on a supposed Senate investigation into one of President Trump’s allies.
The departing employees were identified as writer Thomas Frank, assistant managing editor Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris, head of the investigations 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 CNN spokesman said.
Of the three, Lichtblau won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2006, alongside James Risen for the New York Times.
The CNN report claimed that the Senate intelligence committee was turning its probing eye toward Trump campaign adviser Anthony Scaramucci — and that he met with Russian investor Kirill Dmitriev before the January inauguration.
In the disputed story, Scaramucci said he exchanged pleasantries in a restaurant with Dmitriev.
CNN published the story online Thursday and pulled it the next day, later saying it failed to meet its editorial standards. The network apologized to Scaramucci but did not elaborate on its retraction or clarify if the story was factually incorrect.
CNN Money reports that the story facts were not disputed during a staff meeting Monday afternoon.
“The story wasn’t solid enough to publish as-is,” one source told Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter.
With News Wire Services
