Anthony Scaramucci
FILE – In this Jan. 13, 2017 file photo, Anthony Scaramucci, a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, talks to reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. CNN isn’t commenting Monday, June 26, as to what led it to retract a story about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between an associate of Trump and the head of a Russian investment fund. The story posted Thursday on CNN’s website said Senate investigators are looking into the meeting between Scaramucci and Kirill Dmitriev, whose Russian Direct Investment Fund guides investments by U.S. entities in Russia. Scaramucci, in the story, said he exchanged pleasantries in a restaurant with Dmitriev.
AP

Coverage of CNN’s retracted Russia story (all times local):

Updated 11:40 a.m.: CNN says President Donald Trump is wrong to suggest the network is failing.

The president, in a morning tweetstorm related to CNN’s retraction of a story about a Trump associate’s meeting with a Russian financial leader, suggested that the network is looking at management changes. “Ratings way down,” the president tweeted.

But CNN’s public relations team tweeted back at him Tuesday morning that the network just recorded its most-watched second quarter in history.

Said CNN: “Those are the facts.”

Updated 10:55 a.m.: A conservative provocateur posted a video Tuesday of a man identified as a CNN producer commenting on his network’s coverage of President Donald Trump and connections to Russia.

The producer, identified as John Bonifield, said it appeared CNN had no “smoking gun” evidence of wrongdoing by the president and was giving the story extensive coverage because it was good for the ratings. A CNN biography lists Bonifield as a producer for the network’s medical unit, with no indication that he’s involved in political coverage.

The video, posted by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, had Bonifield talking with an unidentified person while sitting at a table behind a drink and later in an elevator.

CNN has not commented on the video. O’Keefe and his web site have a long history of aiding Republican causes, often with the use hidden cameras. The law firm of one victim recently sued O’Keefe, alleging violation of a federal wiretap law.

The video was released after three CNN journalists resigned Monday following the network’s retraction of a story Friday about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between a Trump associate and the head of a Russian investment fund.

Updated 9:11 a.m.: President Donald Trump is using the resignations of three CNN journalists involved in a retracted Russia-related story to rail against media credibility.

On Tuesday morning he tweeted, “Wow, CNN had to retract big story on ‘Russia,’ with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!”

He also wrote, “So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC? What about the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost? They are all Fake News!”

The CNN story was about a supposed investigation into a pre-inaugural meeting between a Trump associate and the head of a Russian investment fund. The story was posted on the network’s website Thursday and was removed, with all links disabled, Friday night. CNN accepted the journalists’ resignations Monday.