BuzzFeed has subpoenaed the Democratic National Committee for information related to the Democratic hack — its latest salvo in the media company’s efforts to defend itself against an ongoing libel suit connected to its publication of the infamous Steele dossier. The subpoena, a copy of which was reviewed by Foreign Policy, was served on the DNC Friday.
Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian technology executive, has sued BuzzFeed for libel for its decision to publish a series of memos authored by the former British spy Christopher Steele. Those memos — part of a so-called “dossier” of information about President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, include claims strongly denied by Gubarev that his companies were recruited by the Kremlin’s security organs to break into Democratic Party computer systems ahead of the 2016 election.
BuzzFeed is trying to figure out if the allegations relating to its libel suit are true as part of its defense strategy that could end up revealing details of the dossier and the DNC hack that have not been made public.
“One prong of our strategy is to prove that the dossier was being acted on and circulated by officials at the highest levels of government; but we would be remiss if we didn’t use every tool to determine the truth of what actually happened — and whether, as the dossier claims, Mr. Gubarev’s servers were behind the DNC hack,” Matt Mittenthal, a spokesperson for BuzzFeed News, told FP.
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