“The gist of the challenged statements that plaintiff was involved in corrupt Albanian arms deals and associated with mafia thugs had been widely reported for a decade before the book at issue was published.” "Based on the undisputed and compelling report before it, the district court found no evidence that any defendant published the challenged statements with knowledge of falsity or any serious doubts as to its accuracy,” McNamara said. His proximity to power, his access to the media and his alleged presence at the center of multiple corruption scandals all compel that finding," Cooke wrote.Īrguing on behalf of Lawson and Simon & Schuster on Thursday, Elizabeth McNamara of Davis Wright Tremaine urged the panel to uphold Cooke's order dismissing the case. "It is clear that plaintiff is a public figure in Albania. District Judge Marcia Cooke ruled in favor of the defendants in 2018, finding that Berisha qualifies as a public figure under the law.Īccording to Cooke's opinion, one survey found that Berisha has an "astonishing" 100% name recognition among Albanians. The magistrate judge agreed with the publisher that communications between an attorney and Lawson were privileged because they were part of an effort to ensure any legal issues concerning the authenticity of information in the book were resolved before publication.
The privileged documents were related to Simon & Schuster's prepublication legal review of Lawson's book. Zoladz also argued Thursday that a magistrate judge "wrongfully refused access to critical evidence of actual malice" in the case in the form of "hundreds of communications withheld incorrectly on the basis of attorney-client privilege." military for use in the War in Afghanistan.
The book - which was published by Simon & Schuster and became the basis for the 2016 film of the same name starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller - tells the story of Efraim Diveroli, David Packouz and Alexander Podrizki, Florida residents and childhood friends who became international arms dealers.īerisha sued Lawson, Diveroli, Podrizki, Packouz, Simon & Schuster, and Incarcerated Entertainment in Florida federal court in 2017 seeking $60 million in compensatory damages and an order forcing the publisher to remove the allegedly defamatory language from the book.īerisha claims that scenes in Lawson's book identifying him as an individual at the epicenter of two major arms-dealing scandals in Albania were falsified.īerisha was allegedly embroiled in a controversy involving Diveroli's company AEY Inc., a defense contractor that tried to sell Chinese ammunition acquired in Albania to the U.S.
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government officials, including imaginary details down to the color of the cars they drove and the content of their license plates," Zoladz said.
"Lawson falsified evidence of Berisha's involvement with AEY Inc., misrepresented the provenance of his allegations, asked a colleague if he could lie about evidence of Berisha's involvement and literally invented details of a corrupt late-night rendezvous between Berisha and U.S. Courthouse in Atlanta, home of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. ATLANTA (CN) - An attorney for the son of a former Albanian president asked an 11th Circuit panel Thursday to revive his defamation lawsuit against the author and publisher of a book behind the 2016 film "War Dogs,” claiming they falsely accused him of being a mobster who engaged in corrupt arms dealing.Īrguing on behalf of Shkëlzen Berisha, the son of former Albanian President and Prime Minister Sali Berisha, attorney Jason Zoladz told the three-judge panel that statements about Berisha in Guy Lawson's 2015 book "War Dogs" were untrue.
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