LIBERTY LOBBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303190016-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: June 24, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303190016-0
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONJ
24 June 1983
ATLANTA
LIBEL
BY WILLIAM COTTERELL
A $650,000 libel judgment won by Watergate conspiral
be argued before a federal appeals court Monday in a case involving First
Amendment freedoms and the murder of President Kennedy.
The Liberty Lobby, a Washington-based conservative organization that in 1978
linked Hunt to the Kennedy assassination, and the American Civil Liberties
Union, which usually aligns itself with liberal causes, are on one side of the
dispute in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
On the other is Hunt, the 64-year-old former CIA man and author of
detective thrillers who served 32 months and paid a $10,000 fine for six counts
of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping resulting from the June 17, 1972,
break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate
complex.
In the Aug. 14, 1978, issue of its newsletter, The Spotlight, the Liberty
Lobby published an article by former CIA man Victor L. Marchetti, who wrote
that the spy agency was ready to tell Congress Hunt was involved in the Kennedy
murder. At the time, the House Select Committee on Assassinations was
reinvestigating the slayings of the president, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The tabloid, with a circulation of 350,000, said the CIA was furious with
Hunt for embarassing the agency by being involved in Watergate and later trying
to extract ''hush money'' payments from he Nixon White House. The article said
the CIA would ''sacrifice'' him in the House committee hearings, with
headlines and subheadings that said " CIA to Nail Hunt for Kennedy Killing,''
CIA to 'Admit' Hunt involved in Kennedy Slaying' ' and ' 'They'll Hang Hunt.''
Court records said Marchetti's article was reviewed and approved by Willis
Canto, president of the Liberty Lobby, and James P. Tucker, managing editor of
The Spotlight.
Hunt filed suit Oct. 11, 1980, against the Liberty Lobby in Miami. He was
awarded $100,000 in compensatory damages and $550,000 in punitive damages.
The Liberty Lobby appealed to the 11th Circuit, claiming U.S. District Judge
James W. Kehoe improperly assessed damages.
The ACLU's interest in the case was expressed in a ''friend of the court''
brief which argues that the libel verdict would have ''a chilling effect'' on
the First Amendment, if allowed to stand. The ACLU said no punitive damages
should be allowed in libel suits brought by public officials "because of their
chilling effect'' on reporters.
The ACLU also argued that Hunt failed to show ''actual malice'' and that
damages should not have been assessed against the publisher.
a \ibVUED
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/16: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303190016-0