Feds fight BuzzFeed demand for Trump dossier probe details

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




By JOSH GERSTEIN 11/14/2017 07:23 AM EST

Federal agencies are fighting BuzzFeed's demand for information about how officials investigated a controversial dossier of claims about President Donald Trump's alleged connections to Russia.

BuzzFeed published the dossier in January along with a warning that the media outlet's reporters had been unable to verify many of the assertions in the compilation, including salacious allegations about Trump. In February, BuzzFeed was hit with a libel suit from Russian internet entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev, who was mentioned in the document as having ties to hacking directed at Democratic Party leaders.

To bolster its defense in the suit, BuzzFeed is asking a federal judge in Washington to order the FBI and perhaps others to provide details that would officially confirm the dossier circulated at the highest levels of the U.S. government and triggered some effort by American authorities to verify its contents.

Justice Department lawyers moved Monday to block that effort, telling U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta that forcing officials to answer a series of questions about their handling of the dossier could trigger "a wave" of similar requests, distract government employees involved in important intelligence work and expose sensitive details about what government attorneys referred to in vague terms as "an ongoing investigation."

Read more: https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/11/14/buzzfeed-trump-dossier-lawsuit-244876

[itcfish]

1. What is it exactly that Buzzfeed

wants to know? I don't get why they want information. Aren't the ones who obtained the dossier and released it? I must be dense, I just don't get it.

[jberryhill]

3. No, you're not dense

Defamation can be shown where the alleged defamatory material is false or whether it was published with reckless disregard as to whether it was true or false.

So, as part of their defense, BuzzFeed wants the feds to produce material showing how much of it was true.

IMHO, that is somewhat minor, since it doesn't go to state of mind at the time it was published.

[itcfish]

5. Thank you!

n/t

[wishstar]

2. They can easily prove FBI has been investigating dossier, without compromising investigations

I can understand Buzzfeed wanting to defend themselves from libel suit, but there is enough evidence that the dossier has been subject of FBI investigations and even some of its contents confirmed, without expecting premature release of details of investigations.

[jberryhill]

4. Actually, the refusal itself helps the defense in an indirect way

[FakeNoose]

6. Looking for a scoop

Buzzfeed wants to scoop their competitors, that's how I'm reading this.
And yes, maybe they're trying to save their butts in case they get sued.

Mueller will never leak anything, so they're wasting their time.
Maybe they should go out and do some real reporting, instead of looking for a handout.

[pnwmom]

7. Buzzed did real reporting when it wrote the story about the dossier.

They reported on a story that much of the media wanted to ignore.

[FakeNoose]

8. Yes I remember

I think maybe DU ignored it too, but I'm not sure.

I actually joined DU after the election, but last year I was on the Gawker blogs almost every day. They covered the Steele dossier story very well on Gawker, and they gave much of the credit to Buzzfeed.