YouTuber-turned-investigative journalist Coffeezilla has filed a strategic legal motion in his ongoing defamation battle with Logan Paul, seeking to distribute potential liability among multiple parties who reported on the Cryptozoo controversy.
The motion, filed by Coffeezilla’s legal team, represents what observers are calling a sophisticated defense strategy that highlights the widespread media coverage of Paul’s failed cryptocurrency project.
The motion, titled “motion for leave to designate responsible third parties,” contains an unprecedented 31 exhibits – so many that the legal team exhausted the alphabet and had to continue with additional numbering. This legal maneuver essentially argues that if Coffeezilla is found liable for defamation, the damages should be shared among all parties who contributed to any reputational harm Paul allegedly suffered.
Coffeezilla’s investigation into Cryptozoo began in December 2022 with his viral video “Investigating Logan Paul’s biggest scam,” which garnered 10 million views. However, as the motion demonstrates, he was far from alone in covering the story.
Major news outlets including the BBC, New York Times, Business Insider, Rolling Stone, and the Economic Times all reported extensively on the Cryptozoo scandal following Coffeezilla’s initial investigation.
The motion raises a compelling question: why is Coffeezilla being singled out for a lawsuit when numerous established media organizations covered the same story? According to court documents, traditional news outlets began covering the Cryptozoo scandal “almost immediately” after Coffeezilla’s reporting, particularly following Paul’s public apology where he thanked Coffeezilla for “bringing the fraud to light.”
The legal filing also reveals that Paul himself has blamed his management team, Eddie Ibanez and Jake Greenbaum, for reputational damage in separate class action proceedings. Paul allegedly claimed that his “trust of Ibanez and Greenbaum…caused Paul significant reputational harm and expenses.”
This creates an interesting legal contradiction: Paul is simultaneously suing Coffeezilla for reputational damage while blaming his own associates for the same harm in other court proceedings.
The motion further notes that Paul’s reputation was already compromised before the Cryptozoo controversy, citing his 2017 scandal involving a video filmed in Japan’s “suicide forest” and previous controversies involving undisclosed financial interests in cryptocurrency projects. The Department of Justice and SEC have also opened formal investigations into Paul’s cryptocurrency activities, with grand jury subpoenas issued and search warrants executed.
