U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle is considering throwing out a defamation lawsuit filed by Jesse Ventura against 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle's widow, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
First, a here's a little background on the case. As Home Post previously reported, ex-Navy SEAL Jesse Ventura filed a defamation lawsuit in 2012 against Kyle over an alleged bar fight in Coronado in 2006.
Ventura claims Chris Kyle defamed him in his memoir American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune explains...
In a section of his book called “Punching Out Scruff Face,” Kyle describes a confrontation with a “celebrity” at a 2006 wake for a Navy SEAL. He claimed “Scruff Face” made disparaging remarks about the war, the United States and President George W. Bush, provoking Kyle to punch him in the face.
Kyle later identified "Scruff Face" as Ventura.
Kyle, 38, was shot to death alongside Chad Littlefield at the Rough Creek Lodge and Resort shooting range, roughly 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth, in February 2013. The man charged with killing Kyle and Littlefield is a Marine veteran who allegedly was suffering from PTSD.
Attorney John Borger, who represents Chris Kyle's estate, argued in a St. Paul federal courtroom this week that the witnesses who support Ventura's claim that there was no altercation between Ventura and Kyle weren't even in the bar that night.
Ventura's lawyer, David Bradley Olsen, vehemently disagreed with Borger's assertions in the hearing.
Judge Kyle (no relation to Chris) said of the lawsuit:
"It's an interesting case. I'll say that for it."
He said he would take the case under consideration a make a ruling "later."
