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Getty BuzzFeed sued for publishing name of Russian mentioned in Trump dossier

Russian technology executive Aleksej Gubarev filed suit in Florida against BuzzFeed and its editor in chief Ben Smith on Friday, alleging that the news organization defamed him when it published an unverified dossier about Donald Trump that mentioned his name. He is asking for at least $15,000 in damages.

In response to the lawsuit, BuzzFeed on Friday evening issued an apology and said that it had redacted Gubarev's name, and the names of his companies, from the dossier.

"We have redacted Mr. Gubarev's name from the published dossier, and apologize for including it,” BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal told POLITICO in a statement.

CNN Money and McClatchy were the first news organizations to report on the existence of the lawsuit against BuzzFeed. (You can read Gubarev's full defamation complaint against Buzzfeed here.)

Gubarev is the CEO of XBT Holdings, a technology company based in Europe. The unverified dossier that BuzzFeed published, which was reportedly compiled by a former British spy, alleged that Russian intelligence had recruited Gubarev as an asset as part of its hacking campaign to aid Donald Trump.

When it published the dossier on Jan. 10, BuzzFeed said that its reporters had attempted to verify allegations contained in the dossier but that it had been unable to do so.

However, Gubarev claims in his suit that BuzzFeed reporters never tried to contact him to verify any of the information about him.

"Although Buzzfeed and Mr. Smith claim that they had the dossier in their possession for weeks prior to its publication, and despite their claims that they had four reporters working near full-time on attempting to verify the claims made in the dossier, prior to publishing the Defamatory Article and the dossier, neither Buzzfeed nor Mr. Smith contacted the Plaintiffs to determine if the allegations made against them had any basis in fact," the complaint states. "After the dossier’s publication numerous journalists (more than 30) contacted Mr. Gubarev with some even arranging to travel to Cyprus to discuss the publication with Mr. Gubarev. During this time, and up to the present day, neither Buzfeed nor Mr. Smith contacted the Plaintiffs to determine if the allegations made against them had any basis in fact."

The complaint also states that Gubarev is not a public figure and that the publication of the dossier has ruined his reputation.

"Plaintiff Aleksej Gubarev, who is married with three young children is not, in any way, shape, or form, a public figure," the complaint states. "As a result of Buzzfeed and Mr. Smith’s reckless publication of defamatory materials, he has found his personal and professional reputation in tatters. His wife has found herself a target of online harassment and the family’s personal security has been compromised."

Although BuzzFeed did not redact Gubarev's name when it first published the dossier, it did redact the names of a few other people mentioned in the dossier.