Former SD Sen. Pressler: I Got Big Libel Judgment

Former South Dakota Sen. Larry Pressler says he won a "substantial amount of money" more than a decade ago to settle a libel lawsuit over a book that he believes cost him his Senate seat.

 

 

 

 

MITCHELL, S.D. (AP) - Former South Dakota Sen. Larry Pressler says he won a "substantial amount of money" more than a decade ago to settle a libel lawsuit over a book that he believes cost him his Senate seat.

Pressler discussed the settlement after the death Friday of book co-author Alexander Cockburn. Pressler has previously described the 1998 settlement as small.

In "American Babylon," Cockburn and co-author Ken Silverstein speculated that the married Pressler was gay and suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Cockburn campaigned against Pressler's re-election in 1996. The Republican believes the book influenced his loss to Democrat Tim Johnson.

On Tuesday, Pressler says that Cockburn's publisher paid a large libel settlement.

Pressler says the publisher also pulled the book and paid more than $100,000 in legal fees.

(KFGO file photo)

 

AP

   

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