Donald Trump is threatening to sue NBC after an MSNBC reporter made an “error” during a report.
On Wednesday, Trump’s legal team sent out a letter to NBC demanding that the news corporation apologize for “false and defamatory, and extremely damaging” comments made by liberal MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, who ran with a singled-sourced, unverified report that Trump had loans co-signed by Russian oligarchs.
In the letter, which was obtained by Fox News, Trump’s team wrote: “We write concerning the false and defamatory statements published by Lawrence O’Donnell and NBC Universal,” the letter said. “Demand is hereby made that Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize for the aforementioned false and defamatory statements.”
The letter was written by Charles J. Harder, who requested NBC confirm in 24 hours: “O’Donnell and NBCU will immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize for the aforementioned false and defamatory statements.” “Failure to do so will leave my clients with no alternative but to consider their legal options which could include immediate legal proceedings against Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU,” Hader added.
The report was made on Tuesday night when O’Donnell and MSNBC host #RachelMaddow were discussing how Trump was “able to obtain loans when no one else would loan him any money” when he tossed out the unverified speculation. “I may have some information, in this next hour, which would add a great deal to their understanding of that, if true, and I’ll be discussing it here,” O’Donnell said. “I stress ‘if true,’ because this is a single source who has told me that Deutsche Bank obtained tax returns… this single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that Donald Trump’s loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That’s how he was able to obtain those loans and that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs.”
Maddie responded, “What? Really?” O’Donnell added “that would explain every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin” if his information is accurate. O’Donnell apologizes for the report on Wednesday.
“Tonight, we are retracting the story,” O’Donnell said. “We don’t know whether the information is inaccurate, but the fact is we do know it wasn’t ready for broadcast, and for that, I apologize.” Deutsche Bank and NBC have yet to release a statement.
