Judge quashes suit against filmmaker Moore

DETROIT (Reuters) – A federal judge has dismissed a $20
million libel and defamation lawsuit filed against filmmaker
Michael Moore by the brother of Oklahoma bombing conspirator
Terry Nichols.

The suit, filed in October 2003, stemmed from statements
Moore made about James Nichols in “Bowling for Columbine,” his
2002 documentary on gun violence in America.

Nichols charged that the documentary wrongfully implied he
was involved in the April 1995 bombing of the federal office
building in Oklahoma City that took 168 lives. He also said it
intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman on Wednesday issued a
25-page ruling for Moore.

“The court finds that defendant’s statements were factual
and substantially true statements,” Borman wrote in his
opinion.

Moore, who interviewed James Nichols on his farm in Decker,
Michigan, said the brothers and Timothy McVeigh made “practice
bombs” there before the Oklahoma City bombing.

James Nichols was arrested shortly after the bombing and
charged with possessing explosive devices on his farm. He was
also held as a material witness in the bombing. But criminal
charges against him were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

McVeigh was executed in June 2001 for detonating the truck
bomb made of fuel and fertilizer while parked beside the
building.

Terry Nichols was convicted of manslaughter in a federal
court and sentenced to life without parole.

Among the statements that James Nichols objected to was one
in which Moore said, “Terry Nichols was arrested and received a
life sentence. Timothy McVeigh was executed. But the feds
didn’t have the goods on James, so the charges were dropped.”

Borman ruled the statement “was literally true and
accurately reported the government’s dismissal of the charges”
against Nichols.