Shahid Buttar for Congress Committee v. Hearst Communications, Inc.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 SHAHID BUTTAR FOR CONGRESS Case No. 21-cv-05566-EMC COMMITTEE, et al., 8 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO DISMISS v. Docket No.

HEARST COMMUNICATIONS, INC.,

11 Defendant. 12 13 I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiffs Shahid Buttar and Shahid Buttar for Congress Committee bring this action against Defendant Hearst Communications, Inc. alleging defamation and a derivative violation of California’s unfair competition law. Plaintiffs’ claims arise from two stories published in the San Francisco Chronicle in July 2020 reporting on allegations that Buttar, then a candidate for Speaker Nany Pelosi’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, sexually harassed an individual several years earlier. The Chronicle stories summarized the substance of the allegations that the individual, Elizabeth Croydon, published online in an essay on the website Medium, included Buttar’s denial of those…