BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal said the company is advancing several legal arguments about why it was justified in its decision to publish the Russia dossier. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Legal Federal judge deals setback to BuzzFeed in Russia dossier lawsuit

BuzzFeed’s legal defense of its decision to publish the so-called Trump dossier suffered a setback Tuesday night as a federal judge issued a ruling that could make it easier for a Russian internet entrepreneur to prevail in a libel suit against the online news outlet.

Miami-based U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro ruled that Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev is not a public figure for purposes of the defamation suit he filed last year.


The decision means that Gubarev might be able to prevail in the suit by showing mere negligence by BuzzFeed and won’t have to meet the more demanding “actual malice” standard typically applied in U.S. courts in controversies involving prominent individuals or those actively engaged in a public debate.

BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal expressed disappointment in the decision, but he stressed that the media company is advancing several other legal arguments about why it was justified in its decision to publish the dossier former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele compiled about alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia.

“While we disagree with this narrow opinion, it pertains only to one defense of our decision to publish the Steele Dossier, and has no bearing on the primary rationale: that the Dossier was the subject of official action by our government, briefed to two consecutive presidents, and under active and ongoing investigation by the FBI,” Mittenthal said.

An attorney for Gubarev did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BuzzFeed argued that Gubarev’s public relations efforts over a period of years to build business for his web-hosting and internet security firms rendered him a public figure for the purposes of the public controversy over Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In addition, the online publisher noted that Gubarev was quoted in a November 2016 Bloomberg News story about possible digital connections between computers at Trump Tower and Russia’s Alfa Bank.

Just after the U.S. election, Gubarev also rehired a public relations firm to address a news report about his firm's servers being used in an alleged Russian cyberscam to siphon web advertising traffic from major publishers.

However, Ungaro said that activity was not enough to render Gubarev a public figure under U.S. law.

“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,” she wrote. “Because Plaintiffs were only tangential participants in the controversy, they are not limited public figures.”

Gubarev filed suit in a Florida court in February 2017, alleging that his reputation and those of his companies were damaged by false allegations in the dossier claiming they conducted hacking activities on behalf of a Russian spy agency against Democratic Party targets during the 2016 campaign.

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BuzzFeed never asserted the dossier was true but said the public deserved to be aware of the reports circulating at the highest levels of the U.S. government and believed to be part of a potential effort by Russia to gain leverage over Trump.

After Gubarev objected to the mentions of him and his firms, BuzzFeed blacked out those references, but the dossier had already been widely distributed without those edits.

A jury trial in the case could begin as soon as next month, but motions by both sides to dispose of the case on the current record are still pendingbefore Ungaro, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush.

Last week, the FBI released a two-page document the FBI used to brief Trump and President Barack Obama on the dossier during the presidential transition. The memo, disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a POLITICO reporter, describes the dossier as having been prepared for “private clients.”

It emerged last year that the research was paid for by a law firm on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.