Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura’s defamation lawsuit against slain “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle – purportedly the deadliest ever American serviceman – will be allowed to go forward with Kyle’s widow as the defendant, a federal judge ruled last week.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan ruled on Thursday that Taya Kyle, who has been appointed executor of her husband’s estate, would be a proper substitute in the case and says requests to substitute defendants are freely granted.
‘(If) a party dies and the claim is not extinguished, the court may order substitution of the proper party,’ Boylan wrote in his decision.
Ventura claims Chris Kyle defamed him to gain notoriety for his best-selling book, ‘American Sniper,’ in which Kyle describes a 2006 bar fight, claiming he punched someone named ‘Scruff Face.’
In the book, Kyle claims he overheard ‘scruff face’ badmouthing the United States, then-President George W. Bush, and criticizing the Iraq War.