The Worm has Turned...

by Melissa Howes
Mann vs Steyn

BREAKING NEWS IN MANN VS FREE SPEECH

On Thursday afternoon, Judge Irving of the DC Superior Court ordered vexatious litigant Michael E. Mann to pay Mark's co-defendants Competitive Enterprise Institute and Rand Simberg $477,350.80 in attorney's fees - within thirty days.

This is related to counts that were dismissed on Anti-SLAPP grounds half-way through the case - one was against CEI for republishing a National Review editorial critical of Mann deemed protected speech and the other against CEI and Rand for "intentional infliction of emotional distress".

According to anti-slapp.org:

SLAPPs are Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. These damaging suits chill free speech and healthy debate by targeting those who communicate with their government or speak out on issues of public interest.

SLAPPs are used to silence and harass critics by forcing them to spend money to defend these baseless suits. SLAPP filers don't go to court to seek justice. Rather, SLAPPS are intended to intimidate those who disagree with them or their activities by draining the target's financial resources.

SLAPPs are effective because even a meritless lawsuit can take years and many thousands of dollars to defend. To end or prevent a SLAPP, those who speak out on issues of public interest frequently agree to muzzle themselves, apologize, or "correct" statements.

Which is what a court determined Mann did. So now he has been ordered to pay up.

Witness at the trial Dr. Ross McKitrick - who along with Stephen McIntyre - dismantled Michael E. Mann's iconic "hockey stick" sums it up:

or as Jeff Haga put it in response to our lovely witness Dr. Judith Curry (another victim of Mann's disgusting behavior):

For those keeping score, these are the amounts Mann has been ordered to pay:

$477,350.80 - Mann owes CEI/Simberg for attorney fees

$530,820.21 - Mann owes National Review for attorney fees

$ 56,093.80 - Mann owes CEI for Court Costs

$ 9,588.64 - Mann paid CEI for a discovery sanction against him in 2020

Plus, Mann owes Mark and Rand a still to be determined amount of attorney fees as a result of the court's bad faith sanction against Mann and his lawyers:

Here, the Court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that Dr. Mann, through Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Williams, acted in bad faith when they presented erroneous evidence and made false representations to the jury and the Court regarding damages stemming from loss of grant funding.

and

Dr. Mann's focus on procedural requirements for timely objections presumes that the evidence and testimony are not otherwise tainted by inherently sanctionable misconduct. That is plainly not the case here: It bears repeating that Dr. Mann and his counsel should not have engaged in the falsehoods and misrepresentations to the jury and the Court in the first place.

thus

The Court determines that the appropriate sanction is to award each Defendant the approximate expenses they incurred in responding to Dr. Mann's bad faith trial misconduct... [emphasis added in bold]

We think Mann should be ordered to pay five figures for this sanction.

On the other side of the ledger...

A DC jury awarded Mann $1 from Mark plus - 1 million dollars in punitive damages. However, that one million was reduced to a mere $5k on constitutional grounds.

The same jury awarded Mann $1 from Rand Simberg, plus $1k in punitive damages.

And, recently the judge denied Mann's request for a half million in bogus court cost claims - reducing it to $67,685.94 (Mark and Rand jointly responsible). Plus $3,157.90 (Mark) and $3,023.71 (Rand). (Court costs are filing fees and transcription charges.)

Other witnesses at the trial have also weighed in. Roger Pielke, Jr - who testified to Mann's harassment of him - tweeted:

and, of course, the brilliant Stephen McIntyre describes exactly how I feel too:

Chances of that. Zero. We are still waiting on the five-figure sum NR owes Mark from a decade ago. Oh well. Who wants to be in a foxhole with the same losers who went "Against Trump"?

But, of course, we are delighted that our admirable co-defendants CEI and Rand are getting a pay-out. As readers may recall, Mark declined to join the several years long, multi-million dollar anti-slapp appeal route. (Mark wanted to go to trial on the merits 13 years ago). Thus, Mark is not eligible to receive the anti-slapp money.

What happens now?

Will The New York Times do a big splashy headline announcing that it is Mann that now owes 1M?

Will Mann pay? (He hasn't paid the poor late Dr. Tim Ball.)

Will Mann's sugar daddy pay?

Will the USAID cuts affect Mann's access to dough?

We can only speculate re above but what we do know for sure is this is all going to be heard in the Court of Appeals. Thus, there will be many more years of vexatious litigation by "The Fraudulent Nobel Laureate Doctor Evil".

[To be clear, "Fraudulent Nobel Laureate" is a 100% accurate description of Mann. The second part, "Doctor Evil", is merely an opinion. As a trained theologian, I know there is only One that can determine that what is in the hearts of men...]

Thank you to our loyal readers for standing by Mark through all of this. It means everything.

UPDATE! Hello? Secret Service?

© 2025 Mark Steyn Enterprises (US) Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of Mark Steyn Enterprises.

If you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club and you take issue with this article, then have at it in our comments section.

receive the latest by email: subscribe to steynonline's free weekly mailing list

en

Comment on this item (members only)

Viewing and submission of reader comments is restricted to Mark Steyn Club members only. If you are not yet a member, please click here to join. If you are already a member, please log in here:

Member Login

Email:

Password:

Remember me on this computer/device

Back to top of page