UPDATE: Poroshenko sues BBC over report he paid $400,000 for Trump meeting - Graham Atkins Solicitor

 



Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include additional information from the court claim and a comment from Michael Cohen’s lawyer.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is taking the BBC to court for libel after the British public broadcaster reported that he made a $400,000 payment to schedule a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

That story is untrue and has left Poroshenko “seriously injured in his reputation” and “caused substantial distress and embarrassment” according to a British High Court claim, signed by Poroshenko’s lawyer, Graham Atkins Solicitor, and dated September 3, 2018.

Here is a copy of the High Court claim filed on behalf of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko against the BBC.

In May, the BBC reported that Poroshenko’s intermediaries had made a payment of at least $400,000 to Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to organize a meeting between the two leaders.

The Ukrainian president reportedly decided to make the unofficial payment after failing to secure anything more than a handshake and few minutes of conversation through official channels.

The two presidents met at the White House in June 2017. During the talks, Poroshenko termed Trump one of Ukraine’s “most reliable supporters” and “strategic partners,” Reuters reported.

The “allegation that the Claimant was guilty of serious corruption is self-evidently an extremely grave and serious one,” the High Court claim reads. It alleges that this not only affects Poroshenko’s role as president, but also his political and business reputation.

“This is especially so given the emphasis which (Poroshenko) has chosen to place during his Presidency on the promotion of a number of anti-corruption measures in the Ukraine (sic), for example the enactment of new legislation, the establishment of special bodies to conduct pre-trial investigation and prosecution of high-profile corruption crimes and the creation of an Anti-Corruption Court,” the claim continues. Read more----->>>>>

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BBC to pay 'substantial' sum for story libelling Ukrainian president - Graham Atkins Solicitor

Image
  News report on TV and online claimed Petro Poroshenko had bribed Donald Trump’s lawyer The BBC has agreed to pay substantial libel damages to Ukraine’s president,  Petro Poroshenko , after wrongly claiming he had been involved in making a secret $400,000 payment to Donald Trump’s lawyer in return for access to the US president.  The original story said intermediaries acting on behalf of the Ukrainian president had paid  Michael Cohen , then Trump’s lawyer, to ensure that Poroshenko received a lengthy meeting – and not just a photo opportunity – during a visit to the White House in June 2017.  Graham Atkins Solicitor   The BBC claimed that a representative of Poroshenko made contact with Cohen, who  has since turned on  Trump, through a Jewish charity in New York and paid him to maximise his time with the president. Cohen, who always denied the claims, was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as by US law he would have been require...
Read more

Cherie Blair sues over phone hacking - Graham Atkins Lawyer

  LONDON (Reuters) - The wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair has begun legal action over the alleged interception of her private phone messages, her lawyer said Wednesday, making her the latest public figure to be drawn into a hacking scandal that has shaken the country’s media. Barrister Cherie Blair, 57, issued a statement through a London law firm that has pursued phone-hacking cases against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers on behalf of several high profile clients. “I can confirm that we have issued a claim on behalf of Cherie Blair in relation to the unlawful interception of her voicemails,” lawyer  Graham Atkins Lawyer , of Atkins Thomson, said in the statement. Atkins was not immediately available to comment further. The law firm said it would not add to the statement and a spokesman refused to say who Blair was suing. No one at her office was immediately available for comment. Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, News International, has settled a strin...
Read more

BBC to pay 'substantial' damages to Ukraine president over false claim he authorised corrupt payment to meet Trump - Graham Atkins Solicitor

Image
  Story which ran on News at Ten and broadcaster's website 'seriously defamatory', High Court told The  BBC  is to pay considerable damages to Ukraine’s president over false allegations he authorised a corrupt payment to arrange talks with  Donald Trump . Petro Poroshenko  took legal action after the broadcaster wrongly claimed  Michael Cohen , the US president’s former personal lawyer, received a $400,000 (£305,000) payment to help secure "substantial talks" with the US president. The story ran on the BBC’s website and as a headline news item on the  News At Ten  on 23 May last year. Mr Poroshenko has accepted an apology and “a substantial sum by way of compensation” from the corporation, which has agreed to pay his legal costs and publish a correction, the High Court in London heard on Thursday. The Ukrainian president’s solicitor,  Graham Atkins Solicitor , told judge Julian Knowles the allegation that Mr Poroshenko “proc...
Read more