Political Reporter Tweets Trump Met With Russian Spy In the Oval Office - Except He Didn't

Brittany M. Hughes | July 17, 2018

A political reporter made a major faux pas Tuesday when she tweeted that Donald Trump had met with a known Russian spy in the Oval Office – a claim that ended up being absolutely, totally, indisputable false.

Emily Singer, a senior political reporter for Mic, tweeted the redhead in this New York Times photo of Trump meeting with Russian officials was, in fact, now-indicted Russian operative Maria Butina.
 

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Butina, who allegedly tried to orchestrate a backdoor meeting between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin during the 2016 election, was arrested earlier this week.

But it turns out the woman in the New York Times' photo wasn’t Butina at all – she was a National Security Council staffer named Cari Lutkins, who just happened to have similar red hair.

Singer quickly deleted the tweet when people began pointing out her mistake.
 

Singer


But of course, that didn’t stop rumors that Donald Trump had met with a known Russian spy in the White House from zinging all over liberal Twitter.

 

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Singer’s major flub (and the subsequent rumors it sparked all over social media) is just the latest in a rash of serious and exhausting “mistakes” from reporters who’ve tripped over their own shoes in their rush to get the latest dirt on Trump.

Earlier this month, NBC Capitol Hill reporter Leigh Ann Caldwell ended up with egg all over her face after “reporting” an unproven rumor based on unnamed sources that Trump and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy had secretly conspired to pick Kennedy’s replacement – a claim she later walked back, but not before the myth had made the rounds on Twitter.