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 The plaintiff, Saudi Arabian national Abdulrahman Alharbi, 21, had
been present at the race's crowded finish line on April 15, 2013,
when two homemade pressure-cooker bombs ripped through the crowd and
was injured.
He was briefly investigated by federal authorities who concluded
within days that he played no role in the largest mass-casualty
attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001. Federal prosecutors now
contend that a pair of ethnic Chechen brothers, Dzhokhar and
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, carried out the bombing.
Attorneys for Beck and his media company, The Blaze Inc, argued that
by granting interviews to media outlets after being cleared of
suspicion by federal officials, Alharbi made himself a "limited
purpose public figure" subject to higher levels of scrutiny than a
private citizen.
 "The fact that Mr. Alharbi said what he said and availed himself of
the opportunity to inject himself into this controversy in an
attempt to shape the debate is not a fact that can be denied,"
attorney Michael Grygiel said during a hearing at U.S. District
Court in Boston.
Alharbi's attorney, Peter Haley, said that Beck showed malice by
continuing to claim the Saudi exchange student was responsible for
the attacks even after he was cleared.
"All of the statements that we're focused on come after the point of
exoneration," Haley said. "They're statements Mr. Beck has reason to
know are false ... he continues to make them with reckless disregard
to truth or falsity."
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Chief Judge Patti Saris said she would consider the request but
noted, "I'd be surprised if I resolved this in a motion to dismiss."
Neither Beck nor Alharbi attended Monday's hearing.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following a gun battle with police three days
after the bombing that killed three people and injured more than
260. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured on the evening of April 19,
2013, hiding in a boat in someone's back yard.
He is awaiting trial and faces the threat of execution if found
guilty of carrying out the attack.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
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