Following the retraction of an article on a Wall Street financier and ally of President Trump allegedly meeting with a Russian investment fund, three investigative journalists at CNN are leaving the network.
On June 22, CNN published a story on its website about Senate investigators looking into a meeting between SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci and an executive for the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which invests in Russian companies, the Los Angeles Times reports. Late Friday, CNN removed the story from its website, saying the article did not meet its editorial standards, and the network also apologized to Scaramucci. Scaramucci said Friday the story was false, and on Saturday, accepted CNN's apology, tweeting: "Everyone makes mistakes. Moving on."
In the wake of the retraction, the article's writer, Thomas Frank, and editors Eric Lichtblau and Lex Harris have all resigned from CNN, the network announced Monday night. CNN did not say that the story was false, just that the facts were "not solid" enough for publication. Harris, who started at CNN in 2001 and oversaw the investigative unit, said in a statement that CNN is a "news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else. I am leaving, but will carry those principles wherever I go."