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10 i 12 13 14 15 16 LY 18 Lg 20 21 ae 23 24 25 Case 1:15-cv-07433-LAP Document 1325-18 Filed 01/04/24 Page 4 of 23 G1LETGIUA statements that are referenced but never explained in paragraphs 31 and 34? In what context were any of these sentence fragments published? What, if anything, were they in response to? Your Honor has found in previous cases, such as Hawkins v. City of New York, that the failure to identify the individuals to whom the statement allegedly was made and the content of that statement is fatally defective to an attempt to state a libel or slander cause of action. In this case, in this complaint, plaintiff has barely even attributed a few sentence fragments to my client, Ms. Maxwell. She stripped them of any context. She hasn't provided the entire statement in which those sentence fragments were contained, nor the articles in which any of those sentences might have appeared. She has not pled facts, which, as this Court knows, post-Twombly, must be included, not just legal conclusions. She has not pled facts demonstrating actual malice, nor any special damages or facts that would support defamation per se. Because of the many pleading failures, your Honor, I do not believe this complaint should stand. The Second Circuit made quite clear that your Honor has an important gatekeeping function in a defamation case. The Court must ascertain whether the statement, when judged in context, has a defamatory meaning, and also whether it is privileged. SOUTHERN DISTRICT REPORTERS, P.C. (212) 805-0300