After months of sturm and drang, motions filed and pleadings written, Brett Kimberlin's state civil suit against four bloggers -- John Hoge, R.S. McCain, Ali Akbar and Aaron Walker -- went to trial today. After Brett Kimberlin presented his case and rested, the judge ordered a directed verdict in favor of the defendants. The judge stated that Kimberlin had not presented any evidence of defamation in the case, and rather than allowing the jury to deliberate the case, threw the whole thing out. The defendants didn't need to rebut or put on a case, since there was nothing to rebut.
It has been apparent from Kimberlin's first filed brief that there was nothing to the lawsuit. It was vague ramblings of terrible wrongs that didn't really seem terrible, and that didn't really seem wrong. The bloggers wrote about Kimberlin's criminal past, and he wanted to shut them up, punish them, make them suffer, using the courts as a club.
The directed verdict had to be humiliating to Kimberlin and his followers. It's a good day when Kimberlin makes a fool of himself in a court of law. However, the suit should have been dismissed before trial, and it is a puzzle as to why it was not.
Read more about it here:
Hogewash
Legal Insurrection
Popehat
Stacy McCain and Aaron Walker are yet to weigh in at their blogs. No doubt they will have some interesting details of Kimberlin's Waterloo.
Kimberlin had filed two lawsuits against conservative bloggers and pundits, the state lawsuit in Maryland described above, and an even more absurd RICO lawsuit in federal court. The RICO suit is still viable, but motions to dismiss have been made, and there is little doubt Kimberlin will lose there too.
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