Ackman said on Monday that Business Insider and its parent company, Axel Springer, “have tripled down on their false claims and defamation” after the outlet made plagiarism accusations against Oxman, a prominent designer and former MIT professor.

“By complaint I mean lawsuit, to be clear,” Ackman added on X. …

He said the articles could have “literally killed” his wife if not for the support of her family and friends.

“She has suffered severe emotional harm,” he wrote on X, “and as an introvert, it has been very, very difficult for her to make it through each day.”

[I’m sympathetic to Ackman, but I think he will find success elusive in a defamation action. In the first place, his wife has acknowledged some errors in her dissertation, albeit minor ones, which means that BI’s article was at least in range of a factual assertion. Second, Ackman’s public activism on plagiarism allegations likely will make his wife a public person in terms of the Sullivan rule. Ackman may be better off just continuing to shame BI for its preposterous “exposé” and for missing the real corruption at Harvard by a country mile. — Ed]