Oligarchs drop defamation lawsuit over Trump-Russia dossier
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three Russian oligarchs who said their reputations were smeared by a dossier of opposition research examining Donald Trump's ties to Russia have agreed to dismiss their defamation lawsuit, according to a notice filed in federal court on Friday.
Businessmen Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan sued Fusion GPS, a research and intelligence firm, and one of its founders, Glenn Simpson, in 2017. The men, cofounders of Russia-based Alfa Bank, alleged they had been defamed by various statements in a Democratic-funded dossier that Fusion had commissioned former British spy, Christopher Steele, to produce on the relationship between Trump and the Kremlin.
The Steele dossier has been largely discredited since its publication, with core aspects of the material exposed as unsupported and unproven rumors. A special counsel assigned to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe has charged one of Steele's sources for the dossier with lying to the FBI, and has also charged a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for Hillary Clinton's campaign with lying to the FBI during a 2016 meeting in which he relayed concerns about Alfa Bank.
But recent sanctions filed against the oligarchs and the bank amid Russia's war with Ukraine may have complicated their path toward proving defamation.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/oligarchs-drop-defamation-lawsuit-over-205032561.html
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