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Hatfill Denied Appeal Of Ny Times Libel Ruling

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by Jeff Bercovici
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Dec 15 2008 12:20pm EDT

Hatfill Denied Appeal of 'NY Times' Libel Ruling

Former government scientist Steven Hatfill will get no satisfaction from The New York Times.

The Supreme Court has put an end to Hatfill's crusade to punish the paper for linking his name to the 2001 anthrax attacks, rejecting his appeal of an earlier ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hatfill says that columnist Nicholas Kristof libeled him by referring to him as the "likely culprit" behind the string of anthrax mailings that ratcheted up fears in the weeks after Sept. 11.

While he turned out not to be the perpetrator -- the government now says that was the late Bruce Ivins -- Kristof's columns didn't qualify as libel in the eyes of the courts because Hatfill was a public figure, and thus subject to a higher legal test that requires a plaintiff to show actual malice on the part of the defendant.

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