Erik Prince

Wyoming is not the place for security contractor Erik Prince to sue a New York-based publication, a federal judge says.

In a Jan. 15 order, U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne tossed out Prince’s defamation lawsuit against The Intercept.

Prince is free to refile his suit in another federal court, such as the Southern District of New York, though Judge Johnson suggested the businessman may face an uphill battle in proving his case.

At issue is an April story in which The Intercept, relying on anonymous sources, reported that Prince offered his services to a mercenary group tied to the Russian government. The online outlet, which describes itself as offering “fearless, adversarial journalism that holds the powerful accountable,” has stood behind its reporting in the months since publication.

However, Prince says the story is “demonstrably false and defamatory.” He says he never met with the Russian Wagner Group and that the allegations in the story damaged his “reputation and professional opportunities within Wyoming.”

In filing the suit in Wyoming’s federal court, Prince’s legal team went as far as to say that The Intercept’s piece was “aimed” at the state, making it the right place for his defamation case to be heard.

But Judge Johnson disagreed.

He said The Intercept, its parent organization and the co-authors of April’s story all lacked enough ties to Wyoming for him to hold general jurisdiction over the dispute. And Johnson specifically rejected the idea that the article about Prince’s alleged meeting with the Wagner Group was targeted at Wyomingites.

“The subject matter is national security and international relations, which are clearly issues of concern to a national and worldwide audience, not a Wyoming audience specifically,” the judge wrote. In Johnson’s 23-page opinion, he noted multiple times that Wyoming is never mentioned in The Intercept’s story.

“Ultimately, it is hard to see how Mr. Prince could prove [The Intercept] aimed the article at a Wyoming audience without even referencing the state …,” the judge wrote.

Johnson also questioned whether Prince filed the suit in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court in good faith, given that The Intercept and its parent organization, First Look Media, are based in New York.

While some of the facts were unclear at the time, Prince “had at least some indication Wyoming may not have jurisdiction, and he knew that New York was a possible forum, but filed here anyway,” Johnson wrote.

Attorneys for The Intercept had charged Prince’s real motive is to learn the identity of the confidential source behind the story.

Prince suggested he should be allowed to gather more evidence about The Intercept’s reporting before the judge ruled on the dispute over the proper jurisdiction for the case. He said he wanted to learn whether any of The Intercept’s sources were in Wyoming or if the meeting with the Wagner Group was alleged to have taken place in Wyoming.

The Intercept swore its sources were not from Wyoming and that they did no newsgathering in the state, but Prince argued he should be allowed to probe the truth of the outlet’s statements, claiming the publication “has a history of irresponsible journalism.”

Judge Johnson, however, said Prince “has no argument to question the credibility of [The Intercept’s] statements, beyond pure speculation.”

Johnson also said it would be improper to put the publication’s confidential sources at risk.

A former Navy SEAL, Prince rose to prominence in the 2000s, when he founded the military contracting company Blackwater. More recently, Prince served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump and leads the Hong Kong-based security firm Frontier Services Group.

In the lawsuit, Prince and his attorneys said he travels extensively, but “lives, conducts the bulk of his business, and regularly hosts meetings with customers, investors, employees, and other business associates” in Wyoming. He owns a home alongside his family’s Double E Ranch in the Wapiti Valley west of Cody and has ties to the state that date back to the early 1990s.

However, Prince overstated his Wyoming connections in a sworn declaration he submitted to the court in September. Prince said he’d been a registered voter in Park County since 2017 — when he explored a potential challenge to U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. — and that several of his companies are registered to his Wyoming residence, including “Jones Creek” and “CMNS Systems.”

In fact, Prince hadn’t been a Park County voter since 2000 and Jones Creek and CMNS were formed in Delaware rather than Wyoming; after questioning from the Tribune, Prince acknowledged the errors in a revised declaration, named a different business registered to his Wapiti address, and subsequently registered to vote in the county.

Prince brought up his Wyoming connections to support his argument that The Intercept was specifically targeting his business in the state. However, the lead author of last year’s story, Matthew Cole, said he’s “always understood [Prince] to be a resident of northern Virginia.” In his ruling, Judge Johnson noted that Prince never mentioned any specific relationships with customers or business associates in Wyoming that were impacted by the story.

“Mr. Prince may conduct some business in Wyoming,” Judge Johnson wrote, “but it does not appear his career is centered in Wyoming, as he travels frequently.”

The judge did not give either party what they really wanted. The Intercept had asked Johnson to rule that the article was not defamatory and permanently throw out the case, while Prince had asked the judge to allow the case to proceed in Wyoming or, alternately, transfer it to the Southern District of New York.

With Johnson dismissing the case without prejudice, Prince can continue with his suit, but he’ll have to refile and restart the process in another district.

Prince’s attorneys contended in court filings that he’s likely to prevail, but the judge expressed his doubts; if a court agrees with The Intercept that Prince is a public figure, the businessman will have to prove that the publication not only got the facts wrong, but also knew the information was false or acted with a reckless disregard for the truth.

While taking no position on the case, Johnson said he “believes Mr. Prince may have difficulty in proving the merits of his claims.”

As of Monday, Prince had not refiled the case.