Free Republic

On Friday District Judge Amit P. Mehta upheld BuzzFeed’s motion to compel the U.S. government to answer questions about the infamous Christopher Steele dossier. BuzzFeed published the dossier in January 2017. At the time, it reportedly proved collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and contained allegations about a “pee-pee tape.” The dossier’s allegations were unverified and relied on political opposition research. Aleksej Gubarev sued the Internet news outlet for defamation because the dossier included a paragraph that falsely said his company Webzilla was plotting to breach the Democratic Party’s cybersecurity. BuzzFeed is claiming “fair report privilege,” which grants protection...

BuzzFeed News sued the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Tuesday to force the release of information that the news outlet hopes will help it defend against a lawsuit related to the Steele dossier. BuzzFeed is seeking digital information that could shed light on the cyber attacks against the DNC during the presidential campaign. The news outlet faces three separate lawsuits related to its publication of the dossier, which was written by former British spy Christopher Steele and financed by the Clinton campaign and DNC. The suit against the DNC seeks information that could help defend against a defamation lawsuit filed by...

Anthony Ferrante coordinated the U.S. government’s response to Russian election interference. Now he’s helping a news site defend itself from a Russian billionaire’s lawsuit. For the last six months, a team led by a former top FBI and White House cybersecurity official has been traveling the globe on a secret mission to verify parts of the Trump dossier, according to four sources familiar with different aspects of the ongoing probe. Their client: BuzzFeed, the news organization that first published the dossier on U.S. President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, which is now being sued over its explosive allegations. The...