A choose is ruling whether or not a case involving ex-Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, the person who claims to have shot and killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, will stay in federal courtroom or be remanded to state courtroom. Attorneys for either side, in addition to O’Neill, spoke to Army.com in regards to the present state of the litigation.
In November, O’Neill filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit in opposition to Tyler Hoover and Brent Tucker—hosts of The Antihero Podcast—claiming that the pair engaged in a years-long effort to disparage the veteran’s identify and efforts related to bin Laden’s demise throughout Operation Neptune Spear.
He’s claimed that the repeated barbs by Hoover and Tucker, each veterans, goes past accusations of stolen valor however is inciting veteran-on-veteran “hate” meant to monetize on the tarnishing of his fame.
Hoover was an Army airborne infantry veteran and former sheriff’s deputy. Tucker started his army profession throughout the seventy fifth Ranger Regiment, then fifth Special Forces Group (Airborne), earlier than spending the rest of his profession in Delta Pressure.
Final week, O’Neill’s authorized counsel filed a movement to remand the case to Westchester County Supreme Court docket, in keeping with courtroom paperwork shared with Army.com.
That follows a movement made in late December by lawyer Timothy Parlatore—a army veteran who has represented his share of high-profile purchasers, together with U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth—who filed to maneuver the case to federal courtroom, which he claims is the plaintiff’s concern ought to it stay there.
“[O’Neill] ought to have filed it in federal courtroom, however he selected to file it in state courtroom,” Parlatore advised Army.com. “We moved it to federal courtroom. He’s clearly afraid of being in federal courtroom, so he is making an attempt to get it out.”
Podcasters Accused of ‘Rampant Conspiracy Theories’
New York-based lawyer David Schwartz, within the lawsuit filed Nov. 10 accused the Antihero hosts of the “malicious and deliberate publication of false data” relating to his consumer, O’Neill.
The hosts had been “mendacity about his position in dispatching Osama Bin Laden” and “successfully accusing Rob O’Neill of probably the most terrible of offenses for a embellished army man who served with distinction and honor and been lauded for having courageously introduced the worst of terrorists to justice who was answerable for 1000’s of American deaths.”
They’ve accused him of a species of stolen valor and engaged in rampant conspiracy theories riddled with falsehoods and fully unfounded recriminations. — Schwartz in courtroom filings
Schwartz initially filed with the intention of the case going to trial in entrance of a jury.
‘I Look Ahead to Court docket’
The latest authorized submitting was described by Schwartz as “a transparent, if momentary, victory for O’Neill.”
“Rob O’Neill has served this nation with honor, distinction and bravado,” Schwartz advised Army.com. “He performed over 400 fight missions and he’s the person who walked into that compound and killed probably the most needed terrorist on this planet.
“He has been defamed and broken by these podcasters and we look ahead to our day in courtroom.”
The sentiment is shared by O’Neill.
I can solely watch the reality be trampled for thus lengthy earlier than I combat again. I look ahead to courtroom. – O’Neill to Army.com
Parlatore, nonetheless, views the case in a a lot completely different gentle.
“Submitting any kind of defamation declare on this can be a shedding battle as a result of [O’Neill’s] a public determine,” Parlatore, who has represented the podcast duo for the reason that begin, advised Army.com.
“With a purpose to win this case, he has to indicate that the Antihero guys acted with precise malice, which means that they knew what they had been saying was false or acted with reckless disregard of the reality—which is totally not possible right here as a result of setting every part else apart, you will have two books that inform two completely different tales,” he added.
Totally different Accounts 15 Years Later
Parlatore referenced the 2 completely different views of the now notorious bin Laden raid ordered by then-President Barack Obama which can be integral to this case, within the type of New York Instances greatest sellers.
Mark Owen (a pseudonym for Matt Bissonnette) of the U.S. Naval Particular Warfare Growth Group, generally known as SEAL Staff Six, wrote No Simple Day. It’s described as a “firsthand account” of the planning and execution of the profitable Could 2, 2011, raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It was printed in 2012.
O’Neill wrote his personal memoir, The Operator, that was printed in 2017. His e book detailed his 400-plus mission army profession and his personal competing perspective of the bin Laden raid.
The Antihero hosts primarily based an August 2023 podcast titled, “Rob O’Neill—The Internet of Lies,” partly on Bissonnette’s recounting of occasions. O’Neill, who has garnered massive talking charges on account of his background, has in his personal appearances on different podcasts referred to as Bissonnette’s aspect of issues “not the reality.”
“If you happen to learn each books and also you say, ‘You already know what, I believe this e book is extra plausible,’ there’s nothing incorrect with that,” Parlatore mentioned. “All people’s entitled to their opinion that one e book is extra plausible than the opposite. So, you possibly can’t probably make out precise malice when there’s one other e book like that.”
“Add on prime of that, there may be not a single individual that corroborates Rob O’Neill’s claims. Yeah, there’s different folks on the staff which have mentioned, ‘No, he did not [kill bin Laden].’ However there’s not a single one that mentioned, ‘Sure, he did,’ apart from Rob O’Neill.”
William McRaven’s Position in Go well with
O’Neill’s lawsuit additionally extremely touts statements made by retired four-star Adm. William McRaven, who as head of Joint Particular Operations Command oversaw the 2011 operation.
McRaven, in keeping with O’Neill’s attorneys, was launched to the SEAL after the mission and launched to him as “the person who killed Osama bin Laden.”
Authorized filings additionally reference an October 2020 interview between CNN’s Jake Tapper and McRaven, wherein McRaven described O’Neill as “the SEAL that, the truth is, shot bin Laden.”
Schwartz mentioned that the protection “has no sworn witness to rebut” McRaven’s testimony. Parlatore disagreed.
“That is stupidity,” Parlatore mentioned. “To start with, McRaven shouldn’t be even allowed to be a lawyer, not even allowed to be a witness within the case, as a result of McRaven wasn’t within the constructing. He wasn’t on the mission. If you happen to learn McRaven’s assertion, which there are main issues with anyway…is that he was advised by any person else who additionally wasn’t within the constructing that Rob was the shooter. So mainly, any person advised him that any person else advised him that Rob was the shooter. That is three ranges of rumour.
“It is fully inadmissible. With a purpose to show Rob’s case, the one method he can do it’s he wants to usher in the opposite guys who had been within the constructing. So yeah, McRaven’s irrelevant.”
What’s Subsequent
Parlatore mentioned that O’Neill and his authorized counsel are primarily leaping the gun on their claims of getting the higher hand within the swimsuit.
“My purchasers, earlier than they did these episodes, they talked to a number of individuals who had been on that mission who had been within the constructing,” Parlatore mentioned. “So, they’re on the information and on the legislation. They’re completely assured right here as a result of they know what they did, they did their due diligence.
“There’s not a attainable method beneath the legislation you could maintain them answerable for defamation. Now, they’re extraordinarily assured. “
The case will likely be dismissed and O’Neill will find yourself paying each his authorized charges in addition to the Antihero guys, he added.
Truthfully, it is only a matter of how lengthy is it going to take? How a lot cash is Rob going to owe them on the finish of this? And the way unhealthy of successful is that this going to be to Rob O’Neill’s fame, or is that this going to go all the best way to the place these guys must testify?
“Worst-case situation for Rob, if this factor went to trial, a jury would discover that Rob O’Neill didn’t shoot bin Laden. … He has to show that he did. I haven’t got to show that he did not,” Parlatore added.
There may be at the moment no particular timeline for when the choose within the case will reply to Schwartz’s request to maneuver the case again to state courtroom.
