Posted on 08/05/2014 7:00:31 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura launched Tuesday a public relations campaign to explain why he filed the high-profile defamation suit he won last week.
In a wide-ranging interview on WCCO Radio, and in an online video on Ora.tv, Ventura repeatedly said the lawsuit was not about the money; it was about clearing his name.
“For me, it was always about the lie,” said Ventura, the former Navy SEAL and professional wrestler, who said he would have settled for an apology if the publishers of “American Sniper” admitted they fabricated a story about him.
“All they did was offer money,” he said. “I refused, because I wanted to get my name back.”
Chris Kyle, the author of the best-selling book, said he “punched out” Ventura for making offensive comments about Navy SEALs, an incident Ventura denies ever happened.
A jury last week awarded Ventura $1.8 million in damages for defamation and “unjust enrichment”.
An unapologetic Ventura said he had no second thoughts about suing Chris Kyle’s widow, Taya Kyle, after he was murdered.
He said she used her widow status for sympathy, calling it a legal tactic to make him look bad in court.
“(They thought) the upcoming court battle would look a whole lot better,” he said. “The widow? And the children? Look how I’ve been beaten up over that.”
Ventura said much of the $1.8 million in damages will go to his legal team, whose fees were in “the high hundreds of thousands of dollars”.
But none of it will go to charity or to Taya Kayle, whom he said “is making millions” off the book and an upcoming movie.
“Just because she’s a widow does not mean she can profit from defamation and slander. And that’s what she’s done,” he said.
Ventura also said that not keeping the money would go against what the jury wanted: to reward him for the financial damage he says he suffered because of the book.
“I would never counteract the jury like that,” he said. “To me, that would be like slapping the jury in the face.”
Hey Jesse -
Go spend it on a big pile of cocaine, and snort it all at once. The heart attack would be a real trip!
. If you don't care for ventura, fine but if you are ok with one soldier making up complete lies about another to profit from a book then something is wrong somewhere
I went to a commercial dive school (DIT, 1971), we had two classes. One class were all SEAL & one class had two UDT.
All had been in Viet Nam.
What I don’t understand is how they can award so much based off the book if he isnt even mentioned in it. Kyle was asked who it was after the book was published. Me thinks when he sues the publisher he won’t do so well. And I am sure they won’t allow the case to be heard in Minnesota.
PS I think he had something to do with Kyles death. Just saying.
I also believe JV said more seals should die.
I have watched enough court TV to where I would hate to be an innocent man and tried by a current American jury. Now if I were guilty, I would love it.
Jesse was never in Vietnam.
Explain how in a book where he isn’t even mentioned by name is profiting from it? Also explain how it was a complete lie? No, you can’t. The court found he had been defamed, that’s not the same as finding it a lie. Secondly many other SEAL’s who were there said something happened but because they were mostly drunk nobody could say exactly what happened.
Jesse wasn’t mentioned in the book
Guess Jesse never learned the first law of holes.
That's what the article says. Are they sure of that? Who connected "anonymous" to Ventura? Jesse may be getting some "unjust profits," if someone other than Kyle connected him to the book.
The “award” was the jury recommendation.
The judge gets the final call.
We’ll see.
“I would never counteract the jury like that,” he said. “To me, that would be like slapping the jury in the face.”
Agreed, the turkey has no integrity or self respect left.
I hope he spends the rest of the money on a PR firm to make a friend. And I hope she writes a book about the experience and makes even more money.
He has plenty of idiot friends out in truther space and that idiot Alex Jones. Heck I even think one of them posted here in this thread.
Poor Jesse... He’s not feeling the love.
Jessie just did a OJ to his future.
He will be dead or in jail in 5 years
I think the book used scruffy face or some such name. Later someone asked kyle if it was Jesse and kyle admitted it was.
The issue was this person said more seals should die and Kyle decked him. Jesse made this a much bigger issue then the book did.
I’m pretty sure that he has no idea how to spell ‘counteract’, nor what it means.
That’s a laywer-planted word.
Oh, no...
He’s ‘off the grid’.
Just ask him.
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