Climate Scientist Michael Mann Fights New Court Penalties in 2024 Defamation Trial

A D.C. Superior Court judge recently released a ruling accusing climate scientist Michael Mann and his legal team of deliberately making false statements about Mann’s grant money during the professor’s 2024 defamation trial against two right-wing bloggers — charges the legal team claims are false and unfair.Now Mann and his lawyers, Peter Fontaine and John Williams, are defending themselves against the judge’s sanctions filed in March, which condemned Mann’s and his lawyers’ behavior during the trial as “an affront to the Court’s authority,” and “bad-faith trial misconduct.”Despite Judge Alfred Irving’s recent order, the trial had ended with a jury awarding Mann $1 million in punitive damages. But additional rulingsfrom Irving from January to March reduced that damages award to just $5,000, and ordered Mann to pay half a million dollars in legal fees, the latest in a line of rulings against Mann throughout the trial.Mann and his legal team filed court documents April 8 asking Judge Irv...