Sounds like maybe the ghost writer and publisher WERE trying to gain from defaming Ventura, if what you’ve said is true. Which is really sad then, because the $500,000 for defamation is going to be paid by the publisher’s insurance company, but the $1.3 million for wrongful profit will be paid out of the widow’s profits, if I’m understanding correctly.
Stinks if both Ventura and the widow had to go through this crap because the publisher wanted to make money off what Kyle didn’t even want in the book. I’m not a Ventura fan in any way and suspect that most of what was claimed was probably true, but Ventura had no way to really win once the story was published. He’s still not going to be accepted by other SEALs even with this court win, because he put Kyle’s widow through all this. IMHO.
At the trial, Ventura’s lawyers introduced emails from Kyle to the publisher expressing concern that Ventura’s name had been leaked and asking them to ask interviewers not to ask him about the incident.
They also introduced emails between the ghost writer and the publisher that said the Ventura story was really igniting sales of the book.
Kyle clearly had concerns, but in the end, he allowed the story to remain in the book. And when interviewers asked him to confirm that the person he wrote about was Jesse, he did. So I don’t think we can lay all the blame on the publisher.