A judge ruled in favor of BuzzFeed News Wednesday, saying the online news outlet had the right to publish the collection of memos compiled by former British intelligence officer Christoper Steele known as the Steele dossier.
Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev, who is named in the dossier as being involved with Russia's hacking of the DNC, sued BuzzFeed for defamation in 2017, claiming the allegations damaged his and his companies' reputations.
In October, BuzzFeed explained it decided to make the dossier public because it had several reasons to believe the information it contained was credible and the existence of the dossier was newsworthy. Today, the court agreed.
Judge Ursula Ungaro, a George H.W. Bush appointee, ruled that Buzzfeed was reporting on "an official proceeding" in publishing the dossier.
"[T]he privilege exists to protect the media while they gather the information needed for the public to exercise effective oversight of the government," Ungaro wrote in the decision.
Ungaro also found that Buzzfeed's presentation was fair and true.
BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith posted his reaction to the decision on Twitter:
Judge sides with BuzzFeed in defamation suit over dossier (The Hill)