On Friday’s World News Tonight, ABC chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross issued an embarrassing correction to a bombshell scoop he offered hours earlier about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, revealing that Flynn was told by President-elect Trump and not candidate Trump to reach out to Russian officials.
This marked only the latest epic fail by Ross, coming five and a half years since he falsely claimed the man behind the Aurora, Colorado movie theater massacre was a Tea Party member.
Speaking near the end of his lead story on ABC’s evening newscast, Ross told anchor David Muir that he had “a clarification tonight on something one of Flynn's confidantes told us we were reported earlier today” after Flynn pled guilty in the Mueller probe:
He said the President asked Flynn to contact Russia during the campaign. He’s now clarifying that statement, saying, according to Flynn, candidate Trump asked him during the campaign to find ways to repair relations with Russia and other hot spots and then after the election, the President-elect asked him — and told him to contact Russia on other issues, including working together to fight ISIS, David.
The need for a “clarification” was evident earlier in Ross’s piece when laying out the transition timeline of when Flynn had made contact with the then-Russian ambassador after then-President Obama had slapped sanctions on the Putin regime. This came in late December 2016, which was, of course, over a month after the election.
Ross dropped a series of stunning revelations seconds before 11:00 a.m. Eastern about Flynn with some of them remaining in place (as of this writing). However, notice the difference in what he stated to George Stephanopoulos on Friday morning versus what he told Muir on Friday night:
He's prepared to testify that President Trump, as a candidate, Donald Trump, ordered him — directed him to make contact with the Russians which contradicts all that Donald Trump has said to this point.
So, it wasn’t “candidate” Trump telling Flynn to “make contact with Russians” but Trump as “President-elect” asking Flynn to “contact Russia on other issues, including working together to fight ISIS?” Needless to say, that’s a huge difference.
Around this point of inaccuracy, Ross reported that Flynn promised Mueller “full cooperation” to the point that “[h]e’s prepared to testify we are told by a confidante, against President Trump, against members of the Trump family and others in the White House.”
He also revealed that Flynn only made the decision in the last 24 hours, partially due to the heavy legal bills consuming him to the point that he “had to put his house on the market.”
As mentioned earlier, Ross gained infamous notoriety for jumping to conclusions that a “Jim Holmes” who belonged to “the Colorado Tea Party site” was the man who killed 12 and injured 70 people. It turned out that this was actual fake news as the shooter was a different person named James Holmes who had nothing to do with the conservative organization.
Here’s the relevant transcript from ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on December 1:
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
December 1, 2017
6:32 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Testifying Against President Trump; Source: Flynn Prepared to Testify Against Trump]
BRIAN ROSS: Flynn now admits he lied about his conversations with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition period. The White House had claimed it was unaware of the substance of those conversations but today's court documents show Flynn says he was acting with the knowledge of senior transition team officials. The first example: On the same day President Obama proposed tough sanctions on Russian facilities in the U.S. for meddling in the election, the Russian ambassador contacted Flynn. Flynn then consulted with a senior transition team official who said the Trump team “did not want Russia to escalate the situation.” A request Flynn then made directly to the ambassador. Putin did not retaliate and President-elect Trump then tweeted: “Great move....(by V[ladimir] Putin) — I always knew he was very smart.” The documents also show that a very senior official on the transition team told Flynn to contact the Russian ambassador about a U.N. resolution involving Israel. Today, we are learning that very senior official was the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The president has insisted he did not tell Flynn to make the contacts with Russia.
(....)
6:34 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Breaking News; Testifying Against President Trump; Source: Flynn Prepared to Testify Against Trump]
ROSS: And David, a clarification tonight on something one of Flynn's confidante's told us we were reported earlier today. He said the President asked Flynn to contact Russia during the campaign. He’s now clarifying that statement, saying, according to Flynn, candidate Trump asked him during the campaign to find ways to repair relations with Russia and other hot spots and then after the election, the President-elect asked him — and told him to contact Russia on other issues, including working together to fight ISIS, David.
DAVID MUIR: Before and after.
