PDF copy of the High Court judgment in Cruddas v Calvert & Ors [2013] EWHC 2298 (QB), handed down by Mr Justice Tugendhat on 31 July 2013. The case concerned Sunday Times reporting by Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake about Peter Cruddas, then Treasurer of the Conservative Party, following an undercover investigation into alleged cash-for-access arrangements. The judgment is relevant to this archive because Heidi Blake later became a central figure in BuzzFeed’s investigation of CEN, and this earlier case records judicial findings about the conduct of an undercover investigation, the editing and presentation of covertly recorded material, the distinction between fact, inference and opinion, and the consequences of serious allegations that were not proved true. The court found that the Sunday Times articles were untrue in relation to the corruption meaning, rejected the defence of truth on the electoral-law meanings, found that the claim succeeded in both libel and malicious falsehood, and awarded damages of £180,000. The document is included as background evidence for understanding Blake’s previous investigative work, the legal risks of presenting assumptions as fact, and the wider pattern of how serious reputational allegations can be shaped, amplified and defended through media narratives.