Free Republic

With a win against the estate of late Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle behind him, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura now has his sights on HarperCollins, the publisher of the bestselling memoir "American Sniper." Ventura filed a lawsuit Monday against the New York publisher, alleging the publicity generated by the book with a "false and defamatory" segment "substantially increased sales of 'American Sniper,' thereby generating millions of dollars in revenues and profits for Harper Collins." HarperCollins does not comment on pending litigation, a spokesperson said Tuesday. A federal jury in St. Paul found in July that a segment of the...

When a man regarded as the deadliest sniper in U.S. history detailed his kills in a best-selling autobiography, he also included details about a 2006 incident in which he says he punched a guy he called "Scruff Face" -- later identified as former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. Ventura, a public figure with a tough-guy image, says the fight didn't happen, and he sued author Chris Kyle for defamation. The trial begins Tuesday in federal court in St. Paul, and it will be up to Ventura's attorneys to prove that Kyle's account about that night in a California bar was false...

A Texas widow wants Jesse Ventura's defamation and libel case involving her late husband moved from Minnesota to the Lone Star State. Attorneys for Taya Kyle -- whose husband, Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, was shot and killed in February -- argue in a motion filed Monday that forcing the widowed mother of two to spend weeks in Minnesota to defend her husband's veracity in court is too much of a burden. "Bringing my children with me to Minnesota for trial isn't a good option," Taya Kyle wrote in a declaration accompanying her request. "I don't know who would take...