Former Governor Jesse Ventura said he’s settled his lawsuit against “American Sniper” Chris Kyle, calling him the “American liar” and blasting the media for “fake news at its finest.” Ventura said settlement terms are confidential but there’s a reason there’s a smile on his face. Ventura acknowledges he can’t get together with Navy SEALS anymore “’cause my trust has been violated out there. How could I? Who’s gonna stab me in the back next? I’ll just say this: When I was in the teams, we were called the ‘quiet professionals.’ Nobody even knew we existed.” Ventura did say the Kyle family didn’t pay “one cent” toward the settlement — that it all came from the publisher and insurance.
Ventura claimed “American Sniper,” the best-selling memoir by Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, had a fabricated account of a barroom fight between the two. In 2014, a federal jury in Saint Paul awarded Ventura $1.8 million, but a federal appeals court overturned that verdict.