But in a deathbed confession, which is recorded, E. Howard Hunt tells his son, St. John, that he, along with three other of the Watergate burglars, were on the ground in Dealey Plaza on November 2nd, 1963. He describes himself as a backbencher, and he says it was Lyndon Johnson running the show.

Being cleared of libel doesn't mean that the thing that you wrote is true, which is to say that this jury trial doesn't even establish in court that Hunt was in fact in Dallas. All that's necessary for this to be deemed not libel is that Spotlight had to have reason to believe this was true at the time of publication, which is what the jury decided was the case.