If you literally read the link you can see, he wasn't the reporter. He literally passed along a tip. It's a lead- the kind professionals share with each other all the time. He didn't submit this as a story, he didn't push to publish (and in fact explicitly tossed that decision to editors), he literally said "hey heard this from a guy, who another guy we know trusts, do with it what you will, I'm at the doctor".

Yet you keep pointing to implied smears from the AP against the guy they just scapegoated, and ignore actual screenshots of the conversation in question

The confusion came from LaPorta saying that the source had been previously vetted and the editors assuming he was saying the tip had been vetted. So while he's not 100% blameless, come on. He was passing a tip in his off time. The editors had the responsibility to verify.

Jim LaPorta was literally at the doctor, passed along a tip in the Slack channel, when asked on whether he thought they should publish said "above my pay grade", then editor Zeina Karam made the decision to publish.

LaPorta fired, Karam still employed. Check the messages yourself:

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https://www.semafor.com/article/11/22/2022/ap-fired-a-reporter-after-a-dangerous-blunder-slack-messages-reveal-a-chaotic-process

He was dismissive of the chances of Russia invading Ukraine until they, you know....invaded Ukraine. Then he shut up for a bit.

Now he's back, offering very specific criticisms of Western governments and veryyyyyyy vague criticisms of what might be the Russian government.