January 18, 2024 — John Hinderaker
After 12 years of wandering in the wilderness of the D.C. court system, Michael Mann’s defamation case against Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg has finally gone to trial. Opening statements were delivered today. The trial is being live-streamed, and I got the court’s app to work just in time to hear Steyn’s opening.
The case, as you likely recall, arises out of an internet post written by Simberg, which Steyn quoted and added a few comments to. The two posts drew a parallel between Jerry Sandusky, the disgraced Penn State football coach, and Mann, also a Penn State employee and, like Sandusky, investigated by Penn State’s administration in what amounted to a cover-up. Steyn described Mann’s famous hockey stick temperature chart–accurately–as fraudulent............To Read More..
My Take - Finally!!!! Mann lost his case in Canada against Tim Ball, who has now passed, but he used the Truth Defense, which in Canada is also known as the Scorched Earth Defense, and Mann lost. If Steyn sticks what the author is calling the "truth defense" he should win. But...this is DC.... and a ham sandwich can be found guilty there. As one writer noted:
For a start, although Mann always presents himself as the victim, it is important to remember that, in this case as in mine, he is the plaintiff: He chose to sue - and without that conscious choice there would be no legal action. So, when Mann says there was no "finding that Ball's allegations were correct", Ball did not allege anything: That is a legal term and the only allegations before the Court were Mann's, in his statement of claim against Ball. Those Mann allegations have been dismissed with prejudice - so, in layman's terms, Mann lost and Ball won.
- Here's my Mann file.
- Here's my Mark Steyn file
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