HUNT-JFK ARTICLE 'TRASH' BUT NOT LIBELOUS, JURY FINDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201140010-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: February 7, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

5
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845
Cl,
~P lilt- A FI( article `trash'
but not libelous, _L1r y finds
By STEPHEN K. DOIG
Hr c.'c .. r W-;ter
A 1978 tabloid article that
linked \Vatergate figure E. How-
ard Hunt to the murder of John F.
Kennedy was "sloppy" and
"trash" - but not libelous because
it was published without malice.
two of the jurors who decided
against Hunt said Wednesday.
V- .'e were very disgusted and
felt it was trash," explained
Suzanne Reach. one of the six
jurors on the panel, about the
article in the ultra-conservative
Liberty Lobavv's Spotlight tabloid.
"The paper rublished material
that sloppy - but it wasn't
rr, c;c cs.
Hunt lest his case, according to
Reach and a second juror who
refused to be identified, because
1-iunt didn't demonstrate by clear
and conv'ncing evidence that Lib-
ert3 ;..~' ~y president Willis Ca-to
ha i plJ'5iished the story v ith
rec:..ass aisr eeard for the truth. '
Tr a' leuai s:andard for malice
must be met for a public figure
like l-f:ua to Drove libel, U.S.
District Judge James Kehoe told
the jurors before they began their
three-hour deliberation.
"It's a very high standard,"
Kevin Dunne, one of Hunt's attor-
neys. said afterwards.
Dunn, said he will have to
confer with Hunt before deciding
whether to appeal the verdict.
A visibly dismayed Hunt refused
to comment and left the Miami
federal courthouse immediately
after the verdict.
Much of the seven-day trial was
spent on defense claims that Hunt,
then a CIA agent, actually was in
Dallas and involved in a plot to kill
Kennedy.
But Reach said the conspiracy
theories offered by defense attor.
ney Mark Lane were "absolutely
not" the reason for the verdict.
"We were worried that our
verdict might give the wrong
impression to the public," Reach
said.
The second juror called the
conspiracy theories "so much ex-
traneous matter," but added that
the trial was "a good lesson in
American history."
A third juror refused to com-
ment; the other three couldn't be
reached.
Hunt sued Spotlight in 1980 for
printing the article, written by
ex-CIA employee Victor Marchet-
ti. The article stated that the CIA
was about to "nail" Hunt for
involvement in Kennedy's murder
and that House investigators had a
1966 internal CIA memo saying
that Hunt was in Dallas Nov. 22,
1963.
On the stand, Marchetti admit-
ted that his lone original source
for the story was a Washington
rumor he said he heard from
Penthouse columnist Bill Corson,
who later denied talking to Mar-
chetti about the story.
Hunt testified that he was in
Washington that day. He produced
three witnesses, all coworkers at
Hunt's CIA office, to back his
story. Lane, the nation's best-
known conspiracy theorist, count-
ered by arguing that CIA employ-
ees are "trained liars."
The special House Assassina.
tions Committee rejected the theo-
ry that Hunt or the CIA was part
of a Kennedy conspiracy, and said
there was no evidence that the
rumored memo - which wasn't
produced at the Miami trial -
actually existed.
In 1981, Hunt won a $650,000
there's no doubt
in my mind that the
CIA was involved. And
Hunt was a CIA
agent.'
Lawyer Mark Lane,
on Kennedy assassination
verdict against Liberty Lobby by
using largely the same evidence.
But on appeal, the case was sent
back for a new trial because of a
faulty jury instruction.
In the earlier trial, Liberty
Lobby's first attorney had agreed
that Hunt was in Washington.
This time, Lane forced Hunt to try
to prove that he wasn't in Dallas,
21 years after the fact.
Through the second trial. Lane
defended Marchetti's article as
true. Afterwards, he backed off
only slightly from his strong
closing-argument claims that Hunt
was involved in a plot.
"I don't know," Lane said when
asked if he really believed that
Hunt had anything to do with
Kennedy's death. "But there's no
doubt in my mind that the CIA
was involved. And Hunt was a CIA
agent."
Lane, controversial author of a
best-selling 1966 critique of the
Warren Commission investigation
into Kennedy's murder, had called
the jury a "people's commission"
to examine the facts behind Ken-
nedy's death. Actually, the jury
was presented only a tiny fraction
of the volumes of facts and
testimony that have been gathered
in the two decades since the
assassination.
Even Lane, his own strongest
advocate, conceded that he hadn't
proved his theory of Hunt's rule in
a Kennedy plot.
"Based on the evidence they
saw, he couldn't be convicted,"
Lane said.
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/11: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201140010-9
7 February 1985