How long before Lawrence O’Donnell has to retract his supposed Russia scoop? – Washington Examiner

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell “revealed” this week that Russian oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off loans given to President Trump by Deutsche Bank.

Though this seems like a major scoop (if you are still into this sort of thing), there are some serious holes in the cable host’s reporting.

First, O’Donnell personally has not seen evidence of Trump’s supposed financial ties to Putin-connected oligarchs. Second, his story is based on a sole anonymous source. Lastly, the sole anonymous source also has not personally seen the supposed proof of Trump’s allegedly troubling financial records.

But other than that, it is a solid story!

Well, maybe. Probably not.

“This single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that the Trump — 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,” O’Donnell said in a big reveal Tuesday evening.

His MSNBC colleague Rachel Maddow, the high priestess of the Church of Collusion, gasped, “What? Really?”

“That would explain, it seems to me, every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin, if true, and I stress the ‘if true’ part of this,” O’Donnell said.

The Russian front seemed lost, but some people are still keeping hope alive.

O’Donnell also said his source told him the “Russian billionaires” who co-signed the loans are “close to Vladimir Putin.”

“If true,” he added, “that would be a significant factor in Vladimir Putin’s publicly stated preference for presidential candidate Donald Trump over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”

That “if true” better be careful. It will break its back doing all that heavy lifting.

At the time of O’Donnell’s supposedly major reveal, neither MSNBC nor NBC News had published anything to back his claim. Hours later Tuesday evening, well after O’Donnell’s show ended, both newsrooms still had not published anything to support his alleged bombshell revelation.

As if that was not embarrassing enough already for O’Donnell, MSNBC producer Michael Del Moro then said on social media Wednesday morning: “Deutsche Bank is declining to comment on Lawrence O’Donnell’s reporting that Russian oligarch’s co-signed Trump’s loans. The information came from a single source who has not seen the bank records. NBC has not seen those records and has not yet been able to verify the reporting.”

Huh, you think?