'Apologies are not enough' — Eric Trump says he will sue MSNBC over Lawrence O'Donnell report

Eric Trump said Wednesday that his company would sue over a supposed bombshell reported by Lawrence O'Donnell on his MSNBC show on Tuesday evening.

This was a reckless attempt to slander our family and smear a great company. Apologies are not enough when the true intent was solely to damage and cause harm. As a company, we will be taking legal action. This unethical behavior has to stop. @Lawrence @MSNBC https://t.co/i4X6CcdkCm

— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) August 29, 2019

"This was a reckless attempt to slander our family and smear a great company," Trump tweeted. "Apologies are not enough when the true intent was solely to damage and cause harm." 

"As a company, we will be taking legal action. This unethical behavior has to stop," he added. 

He was referring to the apology O'Donnell issued after the report.

"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," O'Donnell tweeted.

"I shouldn't have reported it and I was wrong to discuss it on the air," he added. "I will address the issue on my show tonight."

What did O'Donnell say?

O'Donnell had reported that one source had confirmed from the president's taxes that he had received business funding through guarantees from Russian oligarchs. Journalists generally do not report claims based on only one source.

"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 and that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs," O'Donnell told Rachel Maddow as she transitioned her show to his.

The apology for the story came after a lawyer for President Trump demanded that MSNBC detract their report, calling it false and defamatory.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also excoriated MSNBC over the poorly source report.

"This is one of the reasons that a majority of Americans have lost trust in the media," said Grisham.

"Instead of applying ethics and standards to their reporting, journalists and left-wing outlets have weaponized the media, using it to attack and harass people with little to no regard for the truth," she concluded. 

Deutsche Bank, who was cited as the source of the tax returns with the supposed evidence, declined to comment on the allegations.

Here's more about the MSNBC mistake: