A kitten becomes Exhibit 41 in defamation suit against Buzzfeed over Trump dossier

Enlarge / Exhibit 41 in latest court filing in the defamation suit against Buzzfeed for publishing the Trump dossier. (credit: Federal court documets)

When looking through the latest legal filing in the defamation lawsuit against Buzzfeed and editor Ben Smith that stems from publishing the Trump dossier in full, one might suspect the suit brought by Russian tech mogul Aleksej Gubarev is all fun and games. It feels like some headlines straight out of Buzzfeed, in fact. Gubarev's lawyers almost seem to be trolling the website.

Make no mistake, the lawsuit itself is certainly serious business. It alleges that Buzzfeed, by publishing the dossier in January, falsely portrayed Gubarev as a "significant player" in the Russian government's bid to hack the Democratic National Committee. (Gubarev serves as the chief of Web hosting companies Webzilla and XBT.) But the latest legal document's intro looks like this:

If you didn't notice, there's a footnote next to the word "Kitten." In that footnote, Gubarev's legal team writes that there's a cute picture of a kitten on Exhibit 41, (PDF) apparently buttressing the brief's introductory line.

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