Marc Randazza fires back at the discovery efforts in Daniel Snyder’s defamation case
Source: profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
A Wednesday federal court filing from Washington owner Daniel Snyder suggested that lawyer Marc Randazza has ties to the website that allegedly defamed Snyder with the publication of multiple false articles linking him to Jeffrey Epstein. On Thursday, Randazza filed an emergency motion to intervene in the proceedings.
Randazza objects to statements in Snyder’s supplemental petition for leave to conduct discovery regarding potential connections between meaww.com, a company known as HoneyHouse, Ari Bass (who allegedly owns HoneyHouse), and Randazza.
Randazza insists in paperwork submitted on Thursday, including a sworn declaration of facts, that he has met Bass only three times and that they have no business relationship.
“In reality, Mr. Randazza has never had any contact with New Content Media, Inc., or MEAWW, and had never even heard of the meaww.com website prior to Mr. Snyder sending a private investigator team . . . to his Las Vegas office to inquire about his non-existent relationships,” the memorandum in support of the motion to intervene explains at page 6.
Randazza, who asks the court to strike any statements from Snyder’s filing about Randazza from the record (or alternatively to strike the petition entirely), suggests that Snyder could be seeking revenge for an article Randazza once wrote that criticized Snyder for a prior defamation lawsuit that he had filed. (The title of the article began thusly: “Dan Snyder is butthurt.”)
“Or, perhaps Mr. Snyder is simply desperate to concoct a story that will lend some credence to his bizarre theory that everyone is out to get him,” the memo explains at page 9. “Or maybe Mr. Snyder just wants his name out of the press for the 40+ accusations of sexual misconduct against him.”
Then there’s this gem, from page 5 of Randazza’s sworn declaration: “I had never heard of the meaww.com website until Mr. Snyder’s private investigators came to my office to inquire as to my relationship with the website. I informed Snyder’s private investigator, Jim Conklin, of this fact prior to [Wednesday’s] filing. . . . I then told him to tell his client to ‘go fuck himself.'”
Randazza has represented Dwight Schar, a Washington minority partner whom Snyder seems to believe was connected in some way to the publication of the defamatory articles. The filing makes no reference to the connection between Randazza and Schar, however.
The court granted the motion to conduct the requested discovery on Thursday. If there’s indeed no connection, no evidence will be harvested. However, Randazza objects to the statements made about him personally, and he wants those statements to be expunged from the official court file.