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ABC News Suspends Brian Ross After He Released A Fake Story

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ABC News suspended Brian Ross Saturday after he incorrectly reported about President Donald Trump and former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s previous contact with Russian officials.

“We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday. The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process,” ABC News said in a statement. “As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online.”

The suspension comes as Ross, a veteran journalist at ABC News, reported Friday that a source close to Flynn said that he was prepared to testify that during the campaign Trump instructed him to make contact with Russian government officials.

Ross issued a “clarification” to his report on ABC’s “World Tonight,” hours after the initial bombshell allegation about pre-election Russia contacts was made on air. (RELATED: Watch A CNN Panel Dunk On Brian Ross’s Fake News About Trump And Russia)

The report came out after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts during the presidential transition period with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

ABC suspended Ross for four weeks without pay.

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