A defamation lawsuit that says a Huffington Post article implied Douglas Kennedy and his friend helped to supply the drugs that killed his brother David Kennedy was filed in federal court in Mississippi on Wednesday.

The suit was filed on behalf of Derrick Evans, a childhood friend of Douglas Kennedy, and states The Huffington Post and its former reporter Ashley Feinberg repeatedly defamed the pair in September 2018.

“HuffPost and Feinberg repeatedly defamed Mr. Evans and his friend Douglas Kennedy to a nationwide audience on multiple occasions in September 2018 by falsely asserting that they helped arrange the purchase and delivery of cocaine that resulted in the April 1984 death of David Kennedy,” the lawsuit states.

David Kennedy died of an overdose of cocaine, Demerol and Mellaril at a hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1984. David Kennedy was 28, and the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Feinberg worked as a senior reporter at The Huffington Post from 2017 to 2019 and now works at Slate Magazine.

The article in question, which was about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s years at Georgetown Preparatory School, alleges a “free-for-all” party scene at the school and says Evans and Douglas Kennedy “had helped David Kennedy score the coke,” that led to his death.

The lawsuit says Evans did not help anyone buy illegal drugs but rather “actively assisted law enforcement in identifying and prosecuting” the people who sold them.

The suit states the “knowingly, recklessly and outrageously false” statement has caused injury to Evans’ reputation, for which he is seeking an unspecified amount in damages.

The statement in the article was “published maliciously and in bad faith,” the lawsuit says, adding that the “salacious” article was published to drive traffic to The Huffington Post website.

The Huffington Post and Feinberg made no attempt to contact Evans and Douglas Kennedy before publishing the article, the lawsuit says.

Two corrections were made to the article following its original online publication and were said to further defame Evans, according to the lawsuit, which also states The Huffington Post refused to retract the article.

When asked by the Herald for comment on the lawsuit, a HuffPost spokesman said via email, “We do not comment on pending litigation.”