In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Glenn Beck launched a crusade to prove that the United States government was covering up what "really" happened during the terrorist attack.
According to Beck, Abdulrahman Alharbi, a Saudi Arabian student who was injured in the bombing, was not simply a victim but was really an al Qaeda "control agent" who had recruited the Tsarnaev brothers to carry out the attack. Though Alharbi had briefly been considered a person of interest in the early part of the investigation, he was quickly cleared by investigators. But Beck nevertheless spent days accusing Alharbi of having played a direct role in organizing the bombing and accusing anyone who didn't believe him of having been duped by a government conspiracy to cover up Alharbi's involvement.
Eventually, Beck's entire conspiracy theory collapsed when one of his own experts told him that his theory "doesn't make sense," but that didn't stop Beck from continuing to assert that Alharbi was the "money man" behind the bombing.
In 2014, Alharbi sued Beck for slander and defamation and Beck has been fighting the lawsuit tooth and nail. When the federal judge overseeing the case ruled last month that Beck and his company must reveal the names of the confidential sources upon whom they relied in leveling the unfounded accusations against Alharbi, Beck vowed to go to jail rather than do so.
But it seems that Beck's grandstanding was all for show, as yesterday, he agreed to settle the lawsuit with Alharbi for an undisclosed amount:
Conservative media personality Glenn Beck and several related companies have reached an out-of-court settlement with a Saudi Arabian student Beck accused of involvement in financing the deadly 2013 bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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The settlement was disclosed Tuesday in a brief order from U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris dismissing the case. No dollar amount was revealed.
"The parties in this matter have reached a settlement of the pending action. The terms of the settlement are confidential," both sides in the suit said in a joint statement.
"No party has admitted any fault, wrongdoing, or responsibility as part of the settlement. Defendants have agreed to settlement of the pending action in furtherance of fundamental principles of journalistic integrity by preserving the confidentiality of their sources consistent with their rights and privileges under the First Amendment. The Plaintiff has pursued this action for the reasons set forth in his Complaint and believes those interests have been served by this resolution," the statement said.
