A CNN story last week said a Manhasset resident, who was a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team, met with a Russian investment fund executive four days before Trump’s inauguration.
The story said the meeting was being investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee.
And then the story unraveled.
The story, which was published last Thursday, said Manhasset resident and Port Washington native Anthony Scaramucci met with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
Shortly after, conservative news organizations, including Breitbart News, criticized the story, calling it “baseless,” because it was based on one unnamed source.
CNN retracted the story on Friday, issuing an editor’s note that said, “The story did not meet CNN’s editorial standards and has been retracted.”
CNN also disabled links to the story and issued an apology to Scaramucci.
In a tweet Saturday morning, Scaramucci said, “@CNN did the right thing. Classy move. Apology accepted. Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on.”
He did not respond to an email seeking comment.
However, three CNN staffers, Pulitzer Prize nominee Thomas Frank, Pulitzer Prize winner Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris resigned after the news organization retracted the story.
CNN had a procedure in place for anonymous sources, which required a sign-off by an executive editor before the story is published.
According to a leaked memo published by BuzzFeed News, Rich Barbieri, the executive editor of CNNMoney, said “no one should publish any content involving Russia” without approval from him and other top editors.
Scaramucci, who was recently tapped by Trump to become ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, was an outspoken Trump advocate before the election and served as a member of his transition team.
He was originally slated to become White House’s public liaison to the business community, but he sold his investment firm, SkyBridge Capital, to a Chinese conglomerate with strong ties to China’s ruling Communist Party. Administration officials said Scaramucci’s appointment would have taken three months to be cleared of ethics conflicts.
The sale reportedly netted him $180 million.
Despite once calling Trump an “inherited money dude from Queens County” and clashing with him on other issues, Scaramucci has constantly defended Trump on television and Twitter.
Scaramucci, often referred to as “the Mooch,” initially supported Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and then former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2016 race before supporting Trump.
Scaramucci donated more than $210,000 to “super PACs,’’ political committees and joint fundraising committees supporting Trump in the last two years, according to Federal Election Commission records.
He donated over $177,000 to the Republican National Committee in the same period, according to the FEC.
Scaramucci, a registered Republican, donated money to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, as well as Rand Paul’s and Jeb Bush’s 2016 bids for president, according to FEC records.
He also donated money to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
