American Sniper

matsb84_sl said:

Correct. Also the same guy that Jesse Ventura just won a defamation case against.

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Slaythe_sl said:

This case was pretty popular up here in MN and it was an absolute shock when Ventura ended up winning. One of the more damning accusations being he said something along the lines of SEALs deserving to lose people as a result of America being involved with Iraq. This happened at a bar which was hosting a wake for a SEAL killed in action. Jesse brought on the suit and with the burden of proof on his side, legal experts up here didn't think he much ground to stand on. Something like 15 SEALs all testified on behalf of Kyle, who at this point is represented by his widow, and ended up responsible for paying Ventura.

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Shortly after his autobiography's release, Kyle identified Scruff Face as Jesse Ventura. The media flocked to the story. One of Kyle's publishers emailed him a link to an article on the topic, writing "this is priceless."

He didn't want a three-page excerpt about a bar fight to overshadow a book about war, sacrifice and family.
"I was just trying to put it back in its place," he said.

Kyle's remarks came in a 2012 deposition with Ventura's lawyers. They were played Thursday in federal court in St. Paul in Ventura's defamation trial against the late author.

In his deposition, Kyle stood by the account, as does his estate, now represented by his widow Taya Kyle. But the video played in court Thursday offered a glimpse of how he struggled to rein in the story after the book came out -- even as his publishers seemed to relish the attention it brought.

Ventura was identified when Kyle promoted the book on radio's "The Opie & Anthony Show" in January 2012. A caller asked if the passage referred to Ventura. Kyle seemed surprised, but confirmed it was.

It came up again in later radio and television appearances. In an email, his publicist described the interest surrounding the book as "hot hot hot!"

Less than a week after the book's release, Kyle got an email from his publicist, according to testimony from the deposition.

"I'm going to call you about Jesse V.," she wrote.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

"No," she wrote, "but Jesse V. has come out and said it never happened."

Kyle said he was growing weary of the story and the controversy it generated. In an email to his publishers, he asked: "When is this going to end?"

In another email, an executive said a planned talk show rebuttal of Ventura's denial would be "a nice little bonus hit for us." A publicist said "the so-called 'incident' has helped the book go crazy," according to emails excerpts read in the deposition.

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Later Thursday, Bill and Charlene DeWitt -- two witnesses from the bar the night of the alleged fight -- took the stand.

Bill DeWitt has known Ventura since the two underwent Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training together in 1969. Ventura went on to join the Underwater Demolition Team, which later merged with the SEALs, while DeWitt was assigned to the SEALs.

The DeWitts, Ventura and other BUD/S classmates were in San Diego in 2006 for a reunion and graduation ceremony. They convened at McP's bar the night before the ceremony -- the same night Kyle and his colleagues were at the bar for the wake of slain SEAL Michael Monsoor.

Charlene DeWitt had never met Ventura but said she tried to sit near him because she didn't know many people there and figured he would be interesting.

"I was eavesdropping on Jesse," she said.

She heard him criticize the war in Iraq but didn't hear him badmouth fallen soldiers or argue with younger servicemen. She said she didn't see him get into a fistfight or sport a black eye or bruised face in the following days.

The most memorable thing he said, she recalled, was, "I don't think this war is worth one SEAL dying for."

That's a far cry from Kyle's claim that Ventura said the SEALs "deserve to lose a few" in the war.

She also spent time around Ventura over the next few days. There were no signs of the bar fight Kyle described in the book, DeWitt said, nor any gossip or buzz it had occurred.

Bill DeWitt also testified that he hadn't seen or heard any of the events described in the book.

Leita Walker, an attorney for the Kyle estate, asked him if he might have missed the fight in the crowded bar or simply not heard Ventura's comments because he is hard of hearing.

If Ventura was being loud, as Kyle's story claims, DeWitt said, he likely would have heard him.

He said he saw Ventura mingling in civil fashion with the younger SEALs. If he or his colleagues had seen any sign of a fight with their classmate, he said, they'd have jumped in.

"You'd have had a whole bunch of 60-year-olds all over you," he said.

If he had heard Ventura say SEALs deserved to die, "I'd have been first in line" to confront him about it, DeWitt said.

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