On September 9, 2022, a Weil team secured a complete dismissal of civil RICO and other claims brought in Florida federal court against our client, former Neustar Inc. executive Rodney Joffe, by former President Donald Trump. Mr. Joffe was one of more than a dozen defendants, including Hillary Clinton, James Comey and others, who successfully moved to dismiss claims based on allegations that they had schemed to derail Trump's 2016 campaign by falsely claiming that he had ties to Russia.

In the summer of 2016, Mr. Joffe, a widely respected cybersecurity expert, received and provided data to the FBI suggesting a connection between a server controlled by the Trump Organization and a server controlled by a large Russian bank whose owners reportedly had ties to Vladimir Putin. Although Mr. Joffe never worked for and had no ties to the Clinton campaign, and had a 15-year record of collaborating with U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the Trump complaint alleged that he was acting on the campaign’s behalf when he provided the data to the FBI. Calling the amended complaint “inadequate in nearly every respect,” Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ordered it dismissed with prejudice and denied Trump’s request for an opportunity to file a second amended complaint.

The Weil team included Complex Commercial Litigation partner Ed Soto and associates Brian Liegel and Leah Saiontz.