When The Intercept learned in 2020 about efforts to sell military services to a sanctioned Russian defense contractor, we knew it was a story we had to bring to light.
So we reported it out, confirmed our facts, and went to print. Then mercenary billionaire Erik Prince sued us for defamation.
We stand by our reporting, and one court has already thrown out Prince’s lawsuit for going after us on the other side of the country. But now he’s trying again, and our legal bills have piled up — $200,000 and counting.
Our nonprofit newsroom exists for stories like this one, and our strong base of members gives us the financial support to fight back in court when billionaires like Prince try to intimidate and silence us.
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Jeremy Scahill and other Intercept journalists have reported on Prince for years, tracing his activities from the days of Blackwater’s deadly operations in Iraq to his more recent turn as a Trump apparatchik and, as the United Nations’ own investigators alleged in a stunning report, attempted power broker in the world of international arms.
He sold the company formerly known as Blackwater in 2010, but we’ve continued to report on his activities as he’s pursued a variety of new ventures in the murky world of international private security.
The fact is, Prince is just the latest billionaire to use the legal system to try to silence the free press.
At The Intercept, we never want to walk away from any important story for fear that legal harassment could shut us down. But to keep bringing the actions of the wealthy and powerful to light, we need to be ready to fight.
Will you make a donation and support our crucial investigative journalism and legal work today?
