Chofetz Chaim742(Hilchos Lashon Harah 8:8): You should know that some say that it is permitted

to speak lashon harah on those who cause disputes. However that is only if he see that doing so discredits
the troublemakers and as a result the dispute stops. However if this is not so, then everyone would agree
that lashon harah can not be spoke about them. In addition the following conditions have to be met in
order to speak lashon harah about them. 1) That the facts that caused him to judge these people as
troublemakers – he must know first hand. He must not rely on hearing it from others – unless he has
personally verified that the facts that he heard are true. 2) He needs to be motivated for a future benefit
(to’eles) as we discussed before and not to do it out of hatred for them. 3) If he can stop the dispute in
another manner with out speaking lashon harah about them for example by giving rebuke or other such
techniques – then it is prohibited to speak lashon harah about them. However if he is afraid to rebuke
them because when they find out he doesn’t agree with them they will turn against him, then there is no
other way to correct the matter. Obviously this matter needs a great deal of very careful evaluation and
thought. Therefore one should not be quick to decide to label one side in a dispute as the troublemaker.
Rather he should think carefully according to the Torah who is in fact the troublemaker. If he can not
clarify this matter properly, it is best to do nothing.
Chofetz Chaim743(Hilchos Lashon Harah - Be’er Mayim Chaim 8:16-19): It is permitted to
speak lashon harah about troublemakers - this is the Yerushalmi (Peah 1:1) which is cited by the
Semag and also Haga’aos Maimmoni (Hilchos De’os 7). The reason that I say it is a minority view is
because it is not mentioned by the Rif and Rosh. The Rambam also doesn’t mention it and thus we can
deduce that they don’t agree with it. It is also the understanding of R’ Rephael in his sefer Marpeh Lashon
that the Rambam didn’t agree with this leniency. [Comment: It is possible that they would have agreed to
the law that we derived from this Yerushalmi, however they understood the Yerushalmi differently and
thought that it meant that it is states that it is always permitted to say lashon harah about troublemakers. If
so then the Yerushalmi would contradict the Bavli in Mo’ed Koton that I write about in the next section.
That is possibly why they didn’t mention it. Furthermore there is no proof to this leniency from what it
says in Gittin (31)…]

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