Fundraiser Anthony Scaramucci said Thursday that a now-retracted CNN report saying he met with a Russian investor before President Trump’s inauguration was “nonsense” and an example of the “politics of personal destruction” being waged against the Trump administration.
“It’s more of this nonsense that goes on in Washington where you have scandals incorporated, the politics of personal destruction, as opposed to serving the American people,” Scaramucci, now a vice president at the Export-Import Bank, said on Fox News.
Scaramucci, named to his administration post earlier this month, has been silent since last Friday’s report. The since-removed CNN story claimed the Senate Intelligence Committee was investigating ties between Treasure Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Scaramucci and the Russian fund’s top executive.
“I was at the world economic forum. I was in a restaurant. The person came over to me, shook my hand. I think a reporter snapped a picture,” Scaramucci said on Thursday, recalling the transition encounter. “I think the first part of the fake news was ‘senior Trump official or potential senior Trump official meeting with somebody from the Russians.”
Scaramucci said it was not a “planned” or “strategic” meeting, but an “interaction within a restaurant.”
He also criticized reports that he was preparing to wage war on CNN.
“I think all of that stuff was exaggerated. I had a couple conversations with senior staff at CNN. I made it very clear to them that the story was not accurate,” Scaramucci said. “I didn’t go to sue them or anything. I think that got overblown, to be honest.”
Last weekend, CNN retracted the one source story and three employees resigned over their roles in publishing it.
.@Scaramucci speaks out after CNN retracted a fake story about his ties to Russia pic.twitter.com/ljXCsLg6hd
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 29, 2017
