> hiring a private investigator
Only after being sued. When you sue someone, they're going to try to defend themselves.
Both of them should have just shrugged it off.
> then writing scathing emails
doesn't make someone evil. The whole incident was childish from both sides, but nobody was actually hurt.
He hired the private investigator before he was sued.
You left out the part where he claimed a person was a pedophile and when asked if it was just an insult basically said “no I really think he’s a pedophile”, and started stating made up bullshit about child brides as fact. He only backtracked when he was sued. That is NOT the same as just throwing insults.