Trump's Lawyer Sues BuzzFeed, but What Does That Mean in a Post-Gawker Media Landscape?

Anything from a nuisance to an existential threat

On Jan. 9, Michael Cohen—President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer—filed a pair defamation lawsuits against BuzzFeed and research firm Fusion GPS for publishing a document alleging that Trump’s presidential campaign had unsanctioned meetings with Russian operatives.

Last year, BuzzFeed published a 35-page dossier that “includes specific, unverified and potentially unverifiable allegations of contact between Trump aides and Russian operatives, and graphic claims of sexual acts documented by the Russians.” The fact that the allegations are an unverified caveat is where the lawsuit rests. 

Media lawsuits are not uncommon, but in a post-Gawker media landscape, lawsuits—particularly well-funded ones—can take the wind out of a company.

When Peter Thiel funded Terry Bollea’s (a.k.a.

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