Update: O’Donnell has apologized.
Last night I made an error in judgment by reporting an item about the president’s finances that didn’t go through our rigorous verification and standards process. I shouldn’t have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air. I will address the issue on my show tonight.
— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence) August 28, 2019
Earlier:
It looks as though MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell might have gotten a little ahead of himself when he tweeted, and then said, on air, that Russian oligarchs co-signed for some of Donald Trump’s loans from Deutsche Bank.
The original tweet came hours after a letter filed Tuesday with an appellate court suggested the bank likely has the president’s tax returns. Trump is engaged in an increasingly contentious fight to block Deutsche and Capital One from complying with subpoenas from House Democrats, who are seeking documents related to the president’s finances.
Read more: Deutsche Bank May Have Donald Trump’s Tax Returns, Court Letter Reveals
At 9:52 on Tuesday evening, O’Donnell tweeted the following:
Shortly thereafter, he reiterated the point on national television. “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”, O’Donnell told Rachel Maddow. “And that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs”.
O’Donnell repeatedly emphasized that this was based on a “single source”. Here is the clip:
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Later in the show, he added that “the source… says the co-signers are Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin”.
So, a couple of things. First of all, nobody would be all that surprised if Trump’s loans had Russian co-signers. After all, that’s just the kind of connections everyone has spent the last two years speculating about.
It would, of course, be a disastrous development from a PR perspective, at the least. At worst, it would probably mean Trump can’t be president anymore. “If this is true, Trump cannot remain POTUS [because] he [would] have a direct personal financial conflict that prevents [him] from acting only in the best interests of the United States”, former FBI counterintelligence agent Asha Rangappa said.
The problem for O’Donnell is that he decided to make this rather bombastic claim based on the unverified account of a single source described only as being “close” to Deutsche Bank. Even if true, that’s a perilous thing to do from a journalistic perspective.
Sure enough, Trump is taking legal action. Here is a letter from his lawyers:
As you can see, O’Donnell and NBC have 24 hours to confirm that they will “immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize” for what Trump is calling “false and defamatory statements”. If not, Trump may sue.
The letter says “the only borrowers on these loans are Trump entities and Trump is the only guarantor”. It also asserts that multiple documents related to the loans are available publicly and “searchable online”, and that those documents prove O’Donnell’s claim is dubious.
If that latter bit is true, it would seem Trump has a legitimate defamation claim.
Of course, if O’Donnell’s source (assuming he/she exists) is telling the truth and Trump pursues a defamation suit, then the actual documents would need to be produced in discovery – or at least that’s the common sense read on this.
You’d think Trump wouldn’t risk that scenario, but you never know with him.
Whatever the case, this is a pretty interesting development, coming as it does on the heels of Deutsche Bank’s letter filed with the appellate court hearing Trump’s bid to block Democrats from obtaining his financial records.
DJT having an Oscar Wilde moment?
If he does have a real source, NBC has deep enough pockets to defend their reporter. If so, the ‘discovery’ process will be rivetting! Trump is known for ‘bluffing’ and using ‘slap’ lawsuits to intimidate people. Usually, they don’t have deep enough pockets to defend themselves, so he wins by bullying and intimidation.
Trump is a public figure, so he cannot win on a defamation claim unless he can prove O’Donnell had actual knowledge or the falsity of his statement or acted with reckless disregard of the truth. Unless O’Donnell has no source at all or his source is obviously bogus, Trump won’t be able to win. If he does sue, NBC/O’Donnell will be able to obtain all of the loan documents in discovery, depose Trump and others involved in the transactions, and generally do a whole lot of digging. If NBC/O’Donnell lose, what monetary damages will Trump be really be able to prove? If I were NBC, I’d welcome this process.
Of course the Russian Oligarch didn’t co-sign on the loan directly. They never would have been that sloppy. There was a vast system of money laundering for the global mafia (which is predominantly controlled by the Russian Oligarchs) flowing through DB and the Cyprus Banking system for decades. The funds came from the DB funds with an implied back stop with all that shielded cash.
Eventually the authorities caught on. The Cyprus Banking system was more or less shut down and has yet to come anywhere close to what it was. The global mafia funds fled to crypto and the Scandinavian banks. Without that deposit base, DB was incredibly weakened and systematically dismantled. This information wasn’t made public because it would have crippled the global financial system.
I know of one Co. who used Cyprus banks in doing oil services work in Russia in ~1992 and I suspected it was for the reasons you cited.
I agree with jyl, if this ever goes to court, even Trump’s AG Barr won’t be able to help him.
It’s worth pondering a recent little case/situation, where a court may want the public to be informed, versus closing records:
“In ruling for the publication, the Court of Appeals reasoned there was a strong public interest in disclosing records that involved a settlement with a government agency.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/26/court-lets-testimony-of-purdue-pharmas-richard-sackler-be-made-public.html