Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Trump’s Personal Lawyer Sues Fusion GPS And Buzzfeed Over Russia Dossier

President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer filed defamation suits against Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS over the publication of the infamous Steele dossier, the New York Times reported.

Michael Cohen filed separate suits against Fusion GPS and Buzzfeed. The dossier, compiled by Christopher Steele, a British spy, for the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, describes Cohen as a central figure in a grand conspiracy involving Russia and the Trump Organization.

“Enough is enough of the #fake #RussianDossier,” Cohen tweeted on Tuesday.


Buzzfeed published the Steele dossier last year. It was funded by both Democrat and Republican backers. The dossier contained unsubstantiated information about Trump’s real estate dealings in Russia, and claimed that Trump spent salacious evenings with prostitutes while in Moscow on business.

In an op-ed published late Tuesday, Ben Smith, the editor of Buzzfeed News, said that “a year of government inquiries and blockbuster journalism has made clear that the dossier is unquestionably real news.” Buzzfeed is also being sued by another person named in the dossier.

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.