US court turns down Alfa Group owners’ suit vs Christopher Steele

WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (PRIME) -- The Superior Court of Washington on Tuesday dismissed a defamation suit filed by owners of Russia’s Alfa Group – Mikhail Fridman, German Khan, and Pyotr Aven – against Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier on U.S. President Donald Trump, the court said in a statement.

Fridman, Khan, and Aven filed the suit as they thought that the dossier, released by Steel and London firm Orbis Business Intelligence Limited, contained defamatory statements accusing them of cooperation with the Russian authorities and tampering with the U.S. 2016 presidential election.

Judge Anthony Epstein approved a motion to dismiss Alfa Group’s suit filed by Orbis and Steel, and dismissed the suit with prejudice, which means that the claimants are no longer able to file a similar suit in the future. Epstein said that the claimants provided no proof that Steele knew that some materials of the dossier were inaccurate, and had acted with disregard of that.

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