Erik Prince, the billionaire mercenary who founded the private security firm Blackwater, continues to hound The Intercept through his frivolous lawsuits.
This is the third time that Prince has alleged defamation over the same story. His last two attempts have already been thrown out of court — but not before we racked up over $200,000 in legal bills.
Prince is clearly upset by how Intercept journalists like Jeremy Scahill have scrutinized his long career, tracing his activities from the days of Blackwater’s deadly operations in Iraq to his more recent turn as a Trump apparatchik.
We stand by our reporting, but the sad reality is that Prince has deep-enough pockets to keep dragging us back into court. And unfortunately, so far we’re still $310,000 away from our year-end fundraising goal.
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When journalists start digging into stories that powerful people, corporations, and government officials don’t want you to know, there’s often a backlash.
Sometimes they try to stonewall us by burying public documents. Sometimes they try to bully us with frivolous lawsuits. Sometimes reporters face personal legal jeopardy, like when The Intercept’s James Risen, then working for the New York Times, faced the threat of jail time because he refused to disclose his sources to the Obama administration.
Hard-hitting journalism scares powerful interests, and sometimes they try to hit back. It’s critical that we have a well-resourced legal team able to defend our journalists and insist on our rights.
Between Erik Prince and the other legal battles we’re waging, our bills have piled up. We’re counting on your support to help make sure we never have to back down from a fight — a fight in which truth and the public’s right to know are on our side — merely for fear of legal costs.
Will you donate $5 to help support The Intercept’s hard-hitting investigative journalism today?
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