Lee's lawsuit was over the privacy breach of the investigation against him by government leakers, most of the information leaked about him was true, it was just

Lee's lawsuit was over the privacy breach of the investigation against him by government leakers, most of the information leaked about him was true, it was just wrapped in false speculation and innuendo by the reporting that linked his documented, suspicious activity to the alleged espionage that has as far as I know never been proven to even exist. The media companies settled with Lee because they didn't want to be in a supreme court case where they were subpoenaed for the identities of their anonymous sources. There are two separate issues, one is if Lee was a valid suspect (yes he was) and the other is did the government engage in a leak and smear campaign against him to try to bridge the gap for their lack of evidence that Lee was actually guilty of espionage (yes it did.)