 Friends and business associates have said they warned Ford about the contents of the "Independent" and that he probably never read the articles (he claimed he only read the headlines).On the other hand, court testimony in a libel suit, brought by one of the targets of the newspaper, alleged that Ford did know about the contents of the "Independent" in advance of publication.A libel lawsuit was brought by San Francisco lawyer and Jewish farm cooperative organizer Aaron Sapiro in response to the antisemitic remarks, and led Ford to close the "Independent" in December 1927.