Notable conservative pundit and writer Mark Steyn is heading to the D.C. Court of Appeals on Tuesday over a defamation suit brought by climate scientist Michael Mann, who says those who outed his “hockey stick” theory as fraudulent were wrongfully assailing his work and character.
Mr. Mann, who works at Penn State, sued Mr. Steyn, the magazine National Review, space policy and tech analyst Rand Simberg and the libertarian-minded Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2012.
Why? Mr. Steyn wrote in a brief blog post for National Review that Mr. Mann’s “hockey stick” ideas about climate change were “fraudulent,” and that Mr. Mann’s notion was the “single most influential image [in] Big Climate alarmism,” The Daily Caller reported. Mr. Steyn quoted Mr. Simberg in his blog post as calling Mr. Mann the “Jerry Sandusky of climate science.” Mr. Mann threatened to sue if the post wasn’t removed — and since it wasn’t, he sued.
So now Mr. Steyn is coming to court as a “friend of the court,” he said, The Daily Caller reported. He filed an amicus brief that doubled down on his condemnation of Mr. Mann’s alleged falsehoods.
He wrote: “The audacity of the falsehoods in Mann’s court pleadings is breathtaking,” and even includes a claim as a Nobel Prize winner, The Daily Caller reported.
Mr. Steyn continued, in his brief: “It is deeply disturbing that a plaintiff should make such fraudulent claims in his legal pleadings. It is even more disturbing that the first such fraudulent claim — to be a Nobel Laureate and thus in the pantheon of Banting, Einstein and Curies — should had led to the amended complaint and procedural delays that then followed,” The Daily Caller reported.
He also asked the court to move quickly in its decision.
“Mark Steyn brings this brief in support of neither affirmance or reversal, but instead in support of an expeditious ruling on the matter,” he wrote, The Daily Caller said.
He also denounced the fact the hearing was two days before Thanksgiving.
Mr. Steyn’s legal team is headed by Dan Kornstein, a Yale-trained attorney, The Daily Caller said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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