Politico: Trump Tower Meeting Attendee Sues MSNBC Guest For Libel

on November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 02: Ike Kaveladze (L), walks away after appearing before the House Intelligence Committee on November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. The committee conducting an investigation into Russia's tamp... WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 02: Ike Kaveladze (L), walks away after appearing before the House Intelligence Committee on November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. The committee conducting an investigation into Russia's tampering in the 2016 election. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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One of the attendees of a widely criticized meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and other high level Trump campaign officials and a Kremlin-linked lawyer in Trump Tower in June 2016 is suing an MSNBC guest for libel, Politico reported.

Irakly Kaveladze, referred to as the “eighth man” at the meeting, filed a lawsuit against linguist George Lakoff — a professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California, Berkley — after he called Kaveladze “the major person who has been responsible for money laundering from Russia and other post-Soviet countries,” Politico reported. Lakoff made the comments during an interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC.

In the complaint that Kaveladze filed in California on Tuesday, he said the professor’s “baseless and scurrilous” comments have created a “cloud” around his reputation.

The meeting in question involved key members of Trump’s campaign — his chairman Paul Manafort and son-in-law Jared Kushner — and a Russian lawyer. The meeting was arranged with the promise of Russia providing the campaign with damaging information about Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. and his father claim the meeting ended up being about Russian adoptions and nothing came of it, but former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon called Trump Jr.’s actions in setting up the meeting “treasonous.”

Read Politico’s full report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. Truth is a complete defense to a charge of libel.

  2. Polonium tea is a complete defense to truth.

  3. Good luck with that, guys. Should they ever actually get Lakoff on a witness stand, he’ll leave them gibbering helplessly while he smiles benignly. The boy can perform rope tricks with the language that the legendary Hindu could only stand back and admire. I knew him slightly as an undergraduate classmate, and he’s only gotten better with age.

  4. Seriously, Ike? You got away with laundering $1 billion in the 00’s and you probably got away with helping the Russian intel services launder money in 2016 to enable campaign contributions to the GOP. If you wanna get caught, be my guest.

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