Mueller Accused of Defaming Man in Special Counsel Report

(Bloomberg) -- A Georgian-American businessman mentioned in Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the U.S. election accused the former special counsel of defaming him by suggesting he helped cover up compromising tape recordings of President Donald Trump.

Giorgi Rtskhiladze filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington on Wednesday against Mueller and the U.S. Department of Justice. Rtskhiladze is seeking at least $100 million in damages and a retraction in Mueller’s 448-page report, which the suit claims caused “massive financial and emotional harm” by suggesting he was aware of recordings allegedly made during Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow.

The suit expands scrutiny of Mueller’s work, which until now has been criticized largely by the investigation’s targets and from inside the Justice Department under Trump. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr appointed Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham to review the origins of the Russia probe, and the department is seeking to vacate the related guilty plea of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Mueller damaged Rtskhiladze’s reputation by publishing false and misleading statements connecting him to the tapes mentioned in the so-called Steele dossier, the suit said. Steele was concerned the Russians could use the recordings to blackmail Trump. Mueller’s report mentioned unverified allegations that a Russian real estate conglomerate, Crocus Group, was in possession of the compromising tapes and insinuated that Rtskhiladze worked with Crocus to prevent its release, according to the suit.

“The apparent pressure on the special prosecutors to find Russian collusion with the Trump campaign -- which they concluded did not occur -- appears to have led them nevertheless to create a counterfactual and wildly speculative footnote that leads the reader to believe there was collusion,” Rtskhiladze said in the lawsuit.

The Justice Department and Mueller didn’t respond to requests for comment on the suit.

Rtskhiladze’s complaint focuses on a footnote in Mueller’s report about a text Rtskhiladze sent to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen on Oct. 30, 2016: “Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so you know…” But according to Rtskhiladze, the text actually read, “stopped flow of some tapes,” which he said indicates he didn’t know what the recordings might contain.

Rtskhiladze, who was born in the Republic of Georgia and emigrated to the U.S. in 1991, also claims Mueller falsely identified him as a Russian businessman. Rtskhiladze was the U.S.-based partner of the Silk Road Group, which announced plans in 2012 for a $250 million tower with the Trump Organization in the Black Sea town of Batumi. Trump said he was pulling out of the project in January 2017, right before he entered the White House.

After publication of the Mueller report in April 2019, “life was upended as his good name and favorable business reputation were shattered -- even his nationality is now routinely questioned,” according to the lawsuit.

Mueller’s team knew Rtskhiladze, who lives in Newtown, Connecticut, had no knowledge of the purported tapes and that his texts with Cohen show Rtskhiladze was only communicating a rumor about Trump tapes that a friend attending a dinner party in Moscow had overheard from the next table, according to the lawsuit.

Rtskhiladze claims he incurred more than $100,000 in legal fees and was forced to “forgo numerous business opportunities because no bank, investment company, or other financial institutions will meet with him once they Google his name.”

According to the lawsuit, among Rtskhiladze’s lost opportunities was a $50 million transaction that was canceled and the suspension of his work as a strategic adviser to a major financial institution he didn’t name.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.