Kimberlin v. Hunton & Williams LLP
| Decision Date | 29 March 2016 |
| Docket Number | Case No.: GJH-15-723 |
| Parties | BRETT KIMBERLIN, Plaintiff, v. HUNTON & WILLIAMS LLP, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maryland |
Plaintiff Brett Kimberlin brought this action against numerous Defendants—Hunton & Williams, LLP ("H&W"), United States Chamber of Commerce ("COC"), Palantir Technologies ("Palantir"), Berico Technologies ("Berico"), Mantech International ("Mantech"), Stratio Information Technology, LLC1 ("Stratio"), John Woods, Richard Wyatt, Robert Quackenboss, Greg Hoglund, Aaron Barr, Alex Karp, Matt Long, Nicholas Hallam, Matthew Steckman, Pat Ryan, Sam Kremin, "John Doe Chamber of Commerce Employees," Pacific Northwest National Laboratory ("PNNL"), Bill Nickless, and William Hoge—for their alleged involvement in a criminal enterprise, the purpose of which was to spread false and defamatory stories about Kimberlin through the media and internet and to prevent Kimberlin from exposing the criminal enterprise. This Memorandum Opinion and accompanying Order address Defendants' Motionsto Dismiss, ECF Nos. 2, 40, 49, 50, 53, 57, 58, and 64, as well as a variety of other pending motions and requests, ECF Nos. 43, 68, 75, 77, 78, 83, 94, 99, 100, 106, 107, 108, 109, 124, 126, and 129. A hearing is unnecessary. Loc. R. 105.6 (D. Md. 2014). For the reasons stated below, Defendants' Motions to Dismiss are GRANTED.
Brett Kimberlin has been involved with both Justice Through Music ("JTM") and VelvetRevolution.us ("Velvet"), which is a "501c(4) public charity since 2005 dedicated to corporate and government accountability," for more than eleven years. ECF No. 1 at 6, 10. StopTheChamber.com ("STC"), a campaign of Velvet, "was launched in September 2009 in order to expose unethical activity, excesses and lack of transparency of the Chamber of Commerce." ECF No. 1 at 10.3 The COC wanted to stop criminal investigations being assisted by Plaintiff and conspired with H&W to intimidate and deter Plaintiff from cooperating with the FBI's investigations and to undermine Kimberlin's credibility. ECF No. 1 at 12.
In 2009, the COC directed Defendants Woods, Wyatt and Quackenboss, lawyers at H&W, to target Plaintiff and others "through any means possible, including using illicit and secret black operations in order to stop them from exposing criminal activity and cooperating with federal officials and investigations." ECF No. 12-13. When STC contacted the FBI to request a criminal investigation of the COC in December 2009, COC and H&W "responded by contacting FOX News, which wrote an article defaming Plaintiff and his employer that resulted in STC being attacked with a coordinated campaign of more than 100 threats of violence, including death threats, which STC reported to the FBI." ECF No. 1 at 13. "H&W also hiredinvestigators to dig into the personal lives of STC and its principals, including Plaintiff, and provided defamatory information to reporters at FOX News, which FOX then published in various articles." Id.
In October 2010, H&W asked Palantir to help COC, resulting in Steckman, a Palantir employee, telling H&W "that he would like to bring in two other private security companies, [Stratio] and Berico Technologies to help with the project," just a week after the STC letter to the FBI. ECF No. 1 at 16. The three companies formed a team called "Themis" and "Palantir General Counsel Matt Long, HB Gary CEO Aaron Barr, and Berico COO Nicholas Hallam signed 'Teaming Agreements' on November 16, 2010." ECF No. 1 at 18. The H&W attorneys asked Team Themis to use "Themis techniques and cyber technology against people and organizations opposed to the COC," resulting in Team Themis "preparing a massive $12 million plot to undermine STC, Plaintiff, reporters Glenn Greenwald and Brad Friedman and others." ECF No. 1 at 19.
In a January 2011 PowerPoint presentation that Team Themis prepared for H&W, Team Themis "promised to 'mitigate effect of adversarial groups' and discussed the youthful criminal record of Plaintiff, and said that its goal was to 'discredit, confuse, shame, combat, infiltrate and fracture' COC opponents." ECF No. 1 at 26. After a group of hackers leaked Stratio's emails and several news outlets covered the story, see ECF No. 28-31, STC filed complaints with the District of Columbia Bar against Woods, Wyatt, and Quackenboss on February 23, 2011, ECF No. 1 at 33. On March 11, 2011, STC "notified Defendant [Stratio] and most other Defendants of its intent to seek legal remedies in a court of law for the conduct alleged in the instant Complaint." ECF No. 1 at 33.
In the fall of 2014, PNNL and Nickless "began a covert and then overt campaign to defame, harass and bully Plaintiff with disinformation and defamatory blog posts/tweets meant to harm him." ECF No. 1 at 34.
Kimberlin filed his Complaint to recover damages against Defendants for allegedly engaging in a multitude of tortious acts, including a criminal racketeering enterprise that engaged in mail fraud, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, tampering with a witness or victim, money laundering, and extortion, for the purpose of destroying "Kimberlin and his ability to earn a living in retaliation for his work as the director of a non-profit organization that used legal means to expose unethical and/or criminal activities of the United States Chamber of Commerce ("COC") and its senior principals." ECF No. 1 at 1-2, 52-55.
Kimberlin raises the following claims: (1) violation of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1985(2); (2) fraudulent conveyance; (3) conspiracy to invade privacy—intrusion into seclusion; (4) invasion of Privacy, appropriation of name, intrusion into seclusion, and unreasonable publicity; (5) defamation and false light; (6) violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962(c) and 1962(d); (7) conspiracy to interfere with business relations and conspiracy to interfere with prospective economic advantage; and (8)4 intentional infliction of emotional distress. ECF No. 41-60.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure ("Rule") 12(b)(6) permits a defendant to present a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). "To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter,accepted as true, 'to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.'" Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009); see also Conn. Gen. Life Ins. Co. v. Advanced Surgery Ctr. of Bethesda, LLC, No. DKC 14-2376, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91689, at *13 (D. Md. July 15, 2015) (). "A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678.
When assessing a motion to dismiss, courts refer to the pleading requirements of Rule 8(a)(2) to determine if the complaint adequately states a claim for relief. See Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 554-55, 127 S. Ct. 1955 (2007). Rule 8(a)(2) requires a "short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). A well-pleaded complaint may proceed even if the "actual proof of those facts is improbable and recovery is very remote and unlikely." Twombly, 550 U.S. at 556 (internal quotation marks omitted). For a motion to dismiss, courts are required to assess "the sufficiency of the complaint and not to resolve contests surrounding the facts, the merits of a claim, or the applicability of defenses." Presley v. City of Charlottesville, 464 F.3d 480, 483 (4th Cir. 2006).
However, "Rule 8(a)(2) still requires a 'showing,' rather than a blanket assertion, of entitlement to relief." Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555 n.3. That showing must consist of more than "labels and conclusions," "a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action," or "naked assertions devoid of further factual enhancement." Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678. "In evaluating the complaint, unsupported legal allegations need not be accepted." Revene v. Charles Cty. Comm'rs, 882 F.2d 870, 873 (4th Cir. 1989). Similarly, "[l]egal conclusions couched as factualallegations are insufficient as are conclusory factual allegations devoid of any reference to actual events." Conn. Gen. Life Ins. Co., 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91689 at *13-14 (internal citations omitted). If the "well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct," the complaint has not shown "that the pleader is entitled to relief." Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 679.
Courts are generally not allowed "to consider matters outside the pleadings or resolve factual disputes when ruling on a motion to dismiss." Bosiger v. U.S. Airways, Inc., 510 F.3d 442, 450 (4th Cir. 2007). "However, there are limited circumstances in which the court may consider extrinsic documents in the context of a motion to dismiss," including "documents 'attached to the complaint, as well as those attached to the motion to dismiss, so long as they are integral to the complaint and authentic.'" Philips v. Pitt. Cty. Mem. Hosp., 572 F.3d 176. 180 (4th Cir. 2009).
Courts dismiss claims under Rule 12(b)(6) when it is clear from the complaint that the statute of limitations has expired. See Knickman v. Prince George's Cty., 187 F. Supp. 2d 559, 563-64 (D. Md. 2002) (). Civil RICO actions must be filed within four years. Agency Holding Corp. v. Malley-Duff & Assocs., 483 U.S. 143, 156, 107 S. Ct. 2759 (1987); ...
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