A judge in D.C. on Tuesday tossed a lawsuit brought by three Russian oligarchs against the author of the dossier written about President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
The three Russian billionaires — Petr Aven, Mikhail Fridman, and German Khan — had argued that Christopher Steele defamed them by linking them with Russian efforts to interfere in the presidential election.
The three men own stakes in Alfa Bank in Moscow. In the dossier, Steele alleged that the three men had a close relationship with Russian President Vladmir Putin, and that Aven and Fridman had even given Putin “informal advice” on foreign policy.
[Related: Trump blames ‘fake news media’ for not covering meetings between dossier author and Bruce Ohr]
Steele’s lawyers argued that the three Russian men were trying to scare him into silence, and lawyers for the Russian men argued that Steele was not entitled to free speech protections under the U.S. Constitution because he is not a U.S. citizen.
District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Anthony C. Epstein disagreed, and wrote in his decision that “advocacy on issues of public interest has the capacity to inform public debate, and thereby furthers the purposes of the First Amendment, regardless of the citizenship or residency of the speakers.”
Epstein also cited Washington’s Anti-SLAPP Act, writing that the former British intelligence officer acted “in furtherance of the right of advocacy on issues of public interest” when he told reporters about the dossier in the summer of 2016.
SLAPPs are “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,” and the statute aims to prevent such lawsuits that chill free speech.
