There are four responses here correctly agreeing that the lawsuit would fail, but they disagree on the reason. Do you have to prove that the statement is untrue for it to be possible libel, or do you have to prove it's true to defend yourself from the accusation? Who wins in the middle?
In the U.S. the burden is on the plaintiff (the person allegedly defamed) to prove that the defamatory statement was false IF the plaintiff is a public figure OR if the statement involved a matter of public concern; otherwise the burden is on the defendant to prove the truth of the defamatory statement. [0]
