A Russian venture capitalist and tech executive accused in the Steele dossier of "using botnets and porn traffic" to conduct cyberattacks on Democrats says that Friday's indictment of 12 Russian nationals for hacking the DNC is an "utter vindication," reports the Daily Caller.
Aleksej Gubarev, owner of global tech firm XBT Holding - which owns Dallas-based Webzilla, is currently suing BuzzFeed News for defamation for failing to properly investigate the dossier's allegations before publishing the 35-page document - which include the claim that Gubarev was "recruited under duress" by Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB.
“This is a complete and utter vindication of our clients,” said Val Gurvits, Gubarev's attorney.
Another attorney for Gubarev, Evan Fray-Witzer said in a statement: "When Ben Smith and BuzzFeed decided to publish the Dossier, they knew that they had been unable to verify any of the allegations in it," adding "They knew that falsely accusing people of serious criminal activity could ruin lives, but they decided that getting traffic to their website was more important than the truth. It was all about clicks and dollars for them. Nothing else mattered."
Last January, Gubarev said that he was never even contacted by authorities over the matter.
The salacious innuendoes in the periodic reports about Trump’s personal life dominated social media headlines. The mention of Webzilla and Gubarev was among the more specific allegations: that XBT and affiliates “had been using botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct ‘altering operations’ against the Democratic Party leadership.”
Gubarev said he operated 75,000 servers across the globe and got real-time information if there had been hacking or illicit activity tied to his businesses. There is no evidence of that, he said, adding that no one has contacted him.
“I have a physical office in Dallas. Nobody contacted me,” said Gubarev, adding that 40 percent of his business is handled over the servers it runs in Dallas and the United States accounts for about 27 percent of his global business. -McClatchy
BuzzFeed has argued that it was justified in publishing the dossier since it had already been circulating among government officials and members of the press for several months prior to publication. They also point to a disclaimer which accompanied the dossier that its allegations had not been corroborated.
“Every development of the past 17 months has reaffirmed our position that the dossier was circulating at the highest levels of government, and squarely within our First Amendment right to publish,” said BuzzFeed spokesman Matt Mittenthal in response to Gubarev's comments.
In order to help defend themselves against Gubarev, BuzzFeed filed a lawsuit against the DNC to force them to hand over information related to the "Steele Dossier" after the DNC ignored a subpoena for proof they were hacked - including "digital remnants left by the...