Jesse Ventura wins $1.8M in defamation lawsuit against ex-SEAL sniper

On Tuesday, Ventura was victorious as a federal jury in Minnesota awarded him more than $1.8 million, deciding that Kyle’s 2012 best-selling autobiography, “American Sniper” defamed Ventura.

“I don’t feel great. I mean I feel good over the fact that I’ve been vindicated, that now they know the story was not true. It was fabricated from Day One,” Ventura told CNN affiliate WCCO.

The suit centered on a passage in which Kyle, who was slain in 2013, described fighting with a man in a California bar in 2006 during the wake for SEAL Mikey Monsoor, who was killed in Iraq in 2006.

Kyle wrote that he hit the man after he said that the SEALs “deserve to lose a few,” according to numerous media reports, including CNN affiliate KARE. In later interviews, Kyle said he was referring to Ventura.

On April 30, the Stephenville Empire-Tribune reported that the trial was again postponed in order to conduct DNA testing.

Routh is being held at the Erath County Jail on a $3 million bond for capital murder, according to the newspaper.

He has not entered a plea, said Erath District Court Clerk Wanda Pringle.

CNN’s Justin Lear contributed to this report.

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