There’s a case making its way through the courts that could determine the fate of the Mueller investigation.
Mueller’s supporters in the fake news media and in Washington were on pins and needles about the outcome.
And now a federal judge handed down this shocking ruling that could turn Mueller’s investigation upside-down.
The defining moment for the Russia collusion narrative was when Buzzfeed published the Christopher Steele dossier in its entirety.
By publishing the dossier unedited, Buzzfeed revealed the names of several Russians and American citizens—along with their business entities—which Steele’s sources claimed had been in league with an international conspiracy to rig the 2016 election.
But revealing those names could end up being the media’s most costly mistake.
Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev sued Buzzfeed for defamation of character.
In the dossier, Steele had accused Gubarev and his company Webzilla of participating in hacking the emails from the Democrat National Committee.
Steele’s dossier claimed:
A company called XBT/Webzilla and its affiliates had been using botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data, and conduct “altering operations” against the Democratic Party leadership. Entities linked to one Alexei GUBAROV [sic] were involved and he and another hacking expert, both recruited under duress by the FSB,[1] Seva KAPSUGOVICH were significant players in this operation.
Gubarev protested Buzzfeed’s decision to publish what he declared were false allegations, and Buzzfeed eventually blacked out his name.
However, that did not stop Gubarev from moving forward with his lawsuit.
And now District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro just handed down a ruling that tilts the case in Gubarev’s favor.
Judge Ungaro ruled that since Gubarev is not a public figure, he has a much lower burden of proving why he is owned damages.
“Plaintiffs’ public involvement in cybersecurity and cybercrime issues, therefore, is not germane unless it is tied to Russian interference with the election. And, with the exception of Gubarev’s comments published in Bloomberg, they are not,” the Judge wrote. “Because Plaintiffs were only tangential participants in the controversy, they are not limited public figures.”
Gubarev now only has to prove that Buzzfeed was negligent in publishing the story—not that they knowingly published a false story.
And this case could implicate ramifications for the entire Russia collusion story Robert Mueller has spent 18 months investigating.
The allegations in the Steele dossier were at the heart of the Russia collusion narrative.
Buzzfeed could be found negligent in publishing false allegations that they did not seek to verify.
If Buzzfeed is forced to admit the dossier is bunk, a central pillar of the Russia investigation will be torn asunder.
Gubarev winning this case and proving that Steele lied about him will only cause more Americans to question the legitimacy of the Mueller probe.
Already this week, Michael Cohen’s attorney strongly denied Steele’s dossier allegation that Cohen traveled to Prague for the Trump campaign’s efforts to coordinate with the Russians on releasing the DNC’s hacked emails.
And even Yahoo News reporter Michael Isikoff – who had used Steele as a source for his stories – said in a podcast interview that the dossier could never be proven true, and that many of its allegations were likely “false.”
Gubarev’s lawsuit is yet another full body blow to the credibility of Mueller’s pursuit of Russian collusion.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story.