Three Russian investors accused of trying to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential elections in a controversial intelligence dossier are suing the investigation firm Fusion GPS for libel.
In the suit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, cofounders of Russia’s Alfa Bank Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan claimed that unverified information contained in the so-called “Trump dossier” was slanderous.
A copy of the complaint published by Politico Wednesday described allegations in the dossier as "gravely damaging" to the plaintiffs and Alfa Bank.
The intelligence brief falsely accuses the men of "criminal conduct and alleged cooperation with the ‘Kremlin’ to influence the 2016 presidential election,” the complaint reads
“Neither the Plaintiffs nor Alfa committed any of the acts irresponsibly attributed to them by the Defendants.”
The dossier was produced on the eve of the elections as part of opposition research against the Donald Trump campaign and alleges widespread ties between the campaign and Russian officials.
Republican party representatives in 2015 hired the investigation firm Fusion GPS to conduct the research, penned by former MI6 British Intelligence Officer Christopher Steele.
The same three Alfa Bank investors filed a libel suit in a New York state court in May against BuzzFeed after the media outlet published the dossier.
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