Michael Cohen scraps libel lawsuit against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS

By Cale Guthrie Weissman

April 19, 2018

President Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen has decided to drop his libel lawsuits against BuzzFeed and the research intelligence firm Fusion GPS, reports the Hollywood Reporter. He had begun the process of suing both over the “Trump Dossier,” a generally unverified document of opposition research that Fusion created and BuzzFeed published.

Cohen is currently facing a many legal battles–the FBI recently raided his office and the Department of Justice admitted that he was under criminal investigation. This move to drop the lawsuits is likely a way to fend off further public revelations. These libel suits could invite discovery, meaning lawyers could try to dig up more damning evidence.

This doesn’t mean BuzzFeed is in the clear. The Russian tech executive Aleksej Gubarev filed a lawsuit against the media company last year for including his name in the dossier (BuzzFeed has since apologized and redacted it). This lawsuit appears to be ongoing.

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