CNN and Andrew Kaczynski, head of the network’s Republican oppo research unit “KFILE,” gave a misleading defense after receiving an intense backlash to a Sunday night post boasting that he had tracked down and identified a man who claimed credit for a gif shared by President Donald Trump — and that CNN may reveal his identity if the man chooses to “repeat this ugly behavior.”

Reddit user “u/HanAssholeSolo” posted an apology to CNN and journalists at the raucous pro-Trump subreddit “r/The_Donald” earlier in the evening, saying he did not create the specific WWE-themed video that Trump tweeted. Kaczynski, in a story titled “How CNN found the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF,” revealed that this individual posted the apology after the CNN reporter had discovered his identity and sent him an email asking to talk.

Dozens of celebrities, commentators, politicians, and journalists criticized the network, all across the political spectrum — from Donald Trump Jr. to YouTuber Philip DeFranco to WikiLeaks to anti-Gamergate stalwart Brianna Wu. The hashtag #CNNBlackmail became the number one trending topic on Twitter, with many critics calling the sentence about CNN “reserving the right” to release the man’s name as a “threat” to “dox” him.

CNN violating Commandment 1 of the internet "thou shalt not dox". @KFILE, I was sympathetic. Bad move #CNNBlackmail https://t.co/yLYMlLtS5d pic.twitter.com/QTUaNyfV8F — Maajid – (Mājid) [maːʤɪd] ماجد (@MaajidNawaz) July 5, 2017

Wow, classy move here by @CNN. Threatening to dox a guy over a gif. Wait who's the child again? Thought that was Trump. @KFILE pic.twitter.com/cyJsFz0h7P — Rachel Stoltzfoos (@RachelStoltz) July 5, 2017

obtaining someone's IRL name whether published or not to extract obvious unoriginal apology describing sources/methods snds like dox to me. — Chris Mattmann (@chrismattmann) July 5, 2017

Bullshit. It flat out states his behavior is contingent on whether or not you dox him. — Tim Pool (@Timcast) July 5, 2017

Either doxx him or don't. But don't threaten to do it to blackmail him into certain behavior. That's way out of line. #CNNBlackmail — Jeremy McLellan (@JeremyMcLellan) July 5, 2017

https://twitter.com/germanrlopez/status/882435429320052736

@mathewi @CNN no matter how ignorant Han's words & actions may be u & your editor should be fired. That was a threat.. not journalism — John Thomas (@JohnThomasTV) July 5, 2017

Sorry, it's difficult to believe this isn't a threat. Dumb GIF or not, this isn't really acceptable from a news outlet. pic.twitter.com/JJVBb4s4Mq — Ryan Brown (@Toadsanime) July 5, 2017

https://twitter.com/bethanyshondark/status/882431391249682434

Kaczynski distanced himself from the proverbial scalp, saying that the man “posted his apology before we *ever* spoke [to] him.”

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/882417992717537280

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/882418323673239553

However, Kaczynski and his colleagues appeared to take credit for the apology before the story backfired.

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/882407128962650113

This apology came after @KFILE identified the man behind the account and attempted to make contact w/him https://t.co/hlO5VS3vBt https://t.co/OMyJf9o9mY — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 5, 2017

.@KFILE tracked down the Reddit user behind the Trump wrestling GIF. Now he’s apologizing. https://t.co/Gl2B9C4314 — Kyle Blaine (@kyletblaine) July 5, 2017

Pressed on the apparent contradiction, Kaczynski clarified that his use of “spoke” should only be understood as literal speaking — not that the apology came before CNN ever communicated with the man.

https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/882422613338968064

A representative for CNN did not respond to clarify whether the man, according to Kaczynski, “called us to apologize further” after the story was published with the language that many readers perceived as a threat.

The network released a statement echoing Kaczynski’s defense, saying that the man “apologized and deleted his account before ever speaking with our reporter.” The statement does not admit that the man likely knew he had been identified by a CNN reporter — and could potentially be outed — before he wrote his apology.

Conservative critics pounced on the discrepancy in Kaczynski’s tweets, accusing him of “lying” about the timeline of the apology.

https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/882429239986765828

Still others pointed to CNN producer Donie O’Sullivan seemingly celebrating Kaczynski’s piece and New Day anchor Chris Cuomo asking if the network should publish the man’s identity — claiming that their language suggested a company-wide intent to intimidate or punish the Reddit user.

This is great reporting by KFILE. Horrible, racist keyboard warriors change tune once identified. https://t.co/I3EAfQOpd6 — Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) July 5, 2017

Although nobody archived the threat against Solo by @ChrisCuomo – we can confirm it exists thanks to @iowahawkblog https://t.co/cqThoRkoAE pic.twitter.com/mO3vxTsFjR — Nick Monroe (@nickmon1112) July 5, 2017

The network is under fire as critics assert that Kaczynski failed to establish the newsworthiness of the story. The network’s statement does not answer this concern, and representatives for CNN have not responded to a request for comment at the time of this publication.

People posting offensive memes are not newsworthy. CNN only cared about this guy because of the Trump gif. Theyre using racism as an excuse. — Tim Pool (@Timcast) July 5, 2017

https://twitter.com/SonnyBunch/status/882617431176486913

https://twitter.com/AGoldmund/status/882422294324301824

Fixed it. Seriously, something is either newsworthy or its not. pic.twitter.com/TWQ4IQdFTR — Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) July 5, 2017

If you think the Reddit guy's name is newsworthy, publish it. If it's not, don't. Holding future behavior over his head is #CNNBlackmail. pic.twitter.com/jH3EIQ2AyO — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) July 5, 2017

O’Sullivan retweeted a post from the New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman asserting that the “real story” in this saga is how Trump’s social media team is providing “hate memes” for the president to share.

Yes. And been a story at least since the Star of David tweet a year ago almost to the day https://t.co/euZnzX31eh — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 5, 2017

Kaczynski’s post was only the latest part of a campaign by the network to attack “HanAssholeSolo” and to tarnish Trump supporters (and the president himself) by association. Breitbart’s Tony Lee wrote:

Outlets like CNN searched the user’s posting history and tried to make the case that the wrestling meme may be “racist” and “anti-semitic.” A White House official told media outlets that the video Trump tweeted was not pulled from Reddit. The reporter (Jared Yates Sexton) who first revealed the Reddit user’s racist postings said he received death threats after he published his findings before promptly blaming Trump for the “hateful environment.” “This environment is the creation of the man in the White House,” he tweeted. The Reddit user apologized to the reddit community and for previous posts that were admittedly “racist, bigoted, and [anti-semitic].” “HanAssholeSolo” also said the post was “in no way advocating” violence “in any way, shape or form” and emphasized that the original post is not what ended up on Trump’s Twitter feed.

At the time of this writing, the article is not featured on the page for Kaczynski’s “KFILE” vertical.