This isn’t a topic that I imagine will garner much interest, but I’ve followed it some and a few things have stood out, two in specific:
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The facts unambiguously make Chris Kyle out to be a liar who enriched himself based in part on a lie that severely defames a person who himself is a former Navy SEAL
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Reaction to both the lawsuit and the verdict have almost universally condemned/bashed Ventura for his actions.
I’ll just link to the Wikipedia entry on the controversy.
A quick summary: Jesse Ventura is a former Governor of Minnesota, professional wrestler and actor who served in the Navy in the Vietnam War era as a member of a Underwater Demolitions Team. Most recognize these individuals lineally as “Navy SEALs” because UDTs were later disbanded and folded into the SEALs, and many UDT members fought in engagements identical to SEALs, including significant actions in WWII and the Vietnam War. Due to this, Ventura has frequently participated in SEAL gatherings and events. Ventura has also been a vocal anti-war critic and has bashed Bush era military adventurism.
Chris Kyle was a Navy SEAL who acquired 160 confirmed kills serving in Iraq. He then retired and started a company that specialized in training for defense contractors and such, and wrote a book and signed a movie deal.
In his book, he claims at a SEAL gathering a celebrity says that “Navy SEALs deserve to die for fighting in unjust wars” (paraphrase), Kyle then claims to punch the guy out. In the publicity drive for the book, Kyle identifies the unnamed celebrity as Jesse Ventura.
Ventura sues Kyle, asserting that Kyle’s story is a fabrication and Kyle told the story to generate publicity for his book. During the litigation, a veteran Kyle was working with shot and killed Kyle. Ventura continued the litigation against Kyle’s estate, and won–in the amount of $1.8m.
My argument: All the evidence and the result of the court proceeding show Kyle’s story to be a lie. There is photographic evidence of Kyle and Ventura on good terms at the meeting in question, and there is no evidence of Ventura having been punched. He is on blood thinners and would have shown visible bruising, but despite photos that were taken in that time span he showed none. Not a single person other than Kyle would substantiate the story, and many in fact stated that during the entire time Kyle and Ventura were near one another no altercation or incident occurred.
Kyle made roughly $6m off of book royalties, and $500k off of the movie deal. Harper Collins libel insurance covered $500k of the settlement against Kyle’s estate, and further it covered all of the costs of the litigation itself. Meaning the estate had to factually pay $1.3m to Ventura. Ventura’s attorneys did not work on contingency, he had to pay them for every hour they worked and incurred substantial legal fees, in his words the lion’s share of the money is going solely to pay his costs in litigating to clear his name.
I think Ventura deserves no public condemnation for continuing the suit against Kyle’s estate, because Ventura was someone who was proud of his military service and while often critical of American military policy found it abhorrent that he was accused of wishing death on American soldiers. Kyle made money off of this lie, how much is impossible to say but the jury said $1.3m in improper enrichment. To me that money is no different than if Chris Kyle had robbed a bank of $2m and then been killed. No one would argue that just because Chris Kyle was a decorated veteran who died tragically and left behind a wife and children that his estate should be allowed to keep the $2m he stole. The money the jury ascertained he earned based on libeling Jesse Ventura was never properly his, and thus never should have been the estate’s money–no different than money from a bank robbery.