Jesse Ventura’s Defamation Suit Against ‘American Sniper’ Coming To Close

This combination of file photos shows Chris Kyle, left, former Navy SEAL and author of the book “American Sniper,” on April 6, 2012, and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, right, on Sept. 21, 2012. Ventura ask... This combination of file photos shows Chris Kyle, left, former Navy SEAL and author of the book “American Sniper,” on April 6, 2012, and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, right, on Sept. 21, 2012. Ventura asked a judge Monday, June, 17, 2013, to allow his defamation lawsuit against the slain author to go forward by substituting Kyle’s widow as the defendant. In part of the book, Kyle claims he decked Ventura in 2006 over unpatriotic remarks he says Ventura made. Ventura says the punch never happened. (AP Photo/File) MORE LESS
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Closing arguments are set in former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura’s defamation lawsuit against the estate of “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle.

The case is expected to go to the federal jury in St. Paul after lawyers for both sides sum up their cases Tuesday.

Ventura says Kyle’s 2012 best-seller libeled him in its description of a bar fight in California in 2006. Kyle wrote that he decked a man identified in the book only as “Scruff Face” who allegedly said the Navy SEALs “deserve to lose a few.” Kyle later said the man was Ventura.

Ventura testified the incident never happened. Kyle insisted in testimony taped before he was killed in Texas last year that it did.

Legal experts say Ventura must clear a high legal bar to win.

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