Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is this kind of thing typical for experiments working to confirm such significant results, or is there a mad rush to publish? Do you really get a lot of prestige from confirming somebody else's result? I would have thought the risk to reputation from sloppy work would far outweigh it (see: the cold fusion shenanigans).
Probably a lab that confirms any piece of it will get a significant share of attention and acclaim. I heard the research group got scooped by a former researcher. Former researcher outed them before they were ready for all the relevant questions. Not a particularly good thing to do for a career to out colleagues like that.
Either this or they tried to deny proper authorship to the guy, that antecipated the publishing in self-defense. It's early to point who was the party at fault, without proper investigation.