Jesse Ventura gave his first public comments today regarding the defamation lawsuit against the late former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle over the book “American Sniper.”

Ventura – who won the lawsuit and $1.8 million from his estate – said that when he met Kyle to discuss the lawsuit, he told him that if he apologizes and admits that the whole story was a fabrication, he’ll call a press conference, forgive him, shake his hands, and everyone goes their separate way.

“He would not do it. He would not do one thing to restore my reputation,” Ventura said in a video message. He said that he was offered money but if he just wanted money, he would have settled right there.

“But I wanted and sought the truth, that’s why it had to go to court,” Ventura said.

Most of the criticism that Ventura received was that he didn’t drop the lawsuit after Kyle was murdered but Ventura said that even after he met with Kyle’s representatives after his untimely death, they did not want to work with him to restore his reputation.

Ventura goes more in detail over what happened which you can see below.