Kerry Group’s “actionable libel”?

A very experienced attorney with deep knowledge of the details tells me that the defend John Kerry organization, Patriot Project, may be approaching “actionable libel” by implying Admiral Roy Hoffman and possibly Admiral Bud Schacte of $100,000 payoffs from the Swiftees for their speaking out against John Kerry’s exaggerations and fabrications of his Vietnam service.

James Boyce writes at the Huffington Post, “How Much Is That Admiral In The Window?”

This past February 6, 2006, the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth made a $100,000 payment to Admiral Roy Hoffman one of the key defamers of John Kerry….
With money like this being paid to anyone who is willing to follow orders and lie on cue, is it any wonder that this past May another Admiral who was involved in the Swift Boat lies, Admiral Bud Schachte of Charleston, South Carolina, a man who claimed he was dragged into the Swift Boat mess against his wishes, came out and did a newspaper article ready to "re-engage John Kerry" in the Swift Boat debate.
After all, with his fellow Admiral clearing a solid six figures a year on top of his Naval pension, Bud Schachte certainly wasn't going to let opportunity, or should I say $100,000, pass him by.

Boyce concludes by promising more revealtions:

Note: Look for Dave Johnson's full piece on Monday at http://www.patriotproject.com

I spoke with John O’Neill of the Switees this morning. O’Neill calls the charge a “complete makeup.” Response is to be expected from the Swiftees.

Who is James Boyce, to make this charge? Boyce’s bio at Huffington Post shows him as a longtime activist working for John Kerry, and himself now profiting.

James was also an unpaid Senior Advisor to the Kerry Campaign in 2004 - taking a year's leave of absence from his company. He worked on a variety of projects including organizing surrogate and Kerry Family fundraising - raising over $18 million. James also visited over twenty states during the campaign while traveling extensively with John Kerry and his brother Cam, and more.

Currently, James is President of EKTOS, a strategic communication consultant group specializing in branding and corporate turnarounds based in Boston. Patriot Project is one of his clients.

I can’t find even a website for EKTOS. Its “contractor” status for the Patriot Project may be a matter to examine, or is Boyce even more a legal “employee”? Its “turnaround” specialization is suited to John Kerry’s efforts to turn around the exposure of his fantasy life. Boyce’s accusations, as the contractor of the Kerry Patriot Project, may open him and it to further exposures.

The Patriot Project may be hoisted by its own petard.

The Patriot Project states its mission as:

The Patriot Project will defend any man or woman, regardless of party or affiliation, who is attacked or defamed and whose patriotism is questioned simply because they exercise their rights as Americans.

The falseness and hypocrisy of this Kerry effort to rehabilitate himself by defaming others should come home to roost. Indeed, by the Patriot Project’s own avowal of purpose, it should be more legally aware of defamations that may be laid at its doorstep.

The sheer audacity and hollowness of the Kerry legal campaign against those who unmasked him in the 2004 campaign was expressed in the series of lawsuits launched against prize-winning journalist Carlton Sherwood (whose film exposed the Kerry-led Winter Soldier prophearings of 1971) and against the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation charging false portrayals of the Kerry-led Vietnam Veterans Against the War members. They sought to thuggishly use expensive lawsuits to impoverish Kerry’s opponents. Facing discovery proceedings, however, which would actually further expose the truths about Kerry, these suits were withdrawn and dismissed. A good summary of the legal wrangling can be found in this article from The Legal Intelligencer.

Now the only remaining suit is a defamation and civil rights suit brought by Sherwood himself against Kerry and his Pennsylvania campaign manager, John Podesta, that accuses them of conspiring to stop the film from being shown. The lawyer who was defending Sherwood in the libel suits, Robert C. Clothier of Fox Rothschild O’Brien & Frankel, is declaring victory, saying that plaintiff Kenneth Campbell’s sudden decision to drop his two lawsuits came on the eve of a series of depositions of his key witnesses. “The last-minute withdrawal of the lawsuits on the eve of these depositions suggests a great trepidation about what would come out at the depositions,” Clothier said.

You can say that again, Mr. Clothier. The Sherwood suit, IMHO, may turn out to be a public exposure of blithe perfidy by Kerry on the order of the Hiss trials.

Not that that stopped Hiss. And doesn’t seem to be slowing down Kerry and allies from digging their hole deeper.

SEE the update to this post, Kerry "Patriot Project" Punks, which further reveals the lack of care for facts or truth by Boyce and fellow.