He'd be giving up his sources and even opening himself up to the risk of them investigating him and charging him with other crimes.

Any intelligent attorney would advise their client against it.

Once you go to court anything can happen and either way it's prohibitively expensive.

People in my own family have done nothing wrong and lost everything they owned fighting in civil court over smaller stakes than this. Going to civil court is the absolute last resort. Nobody wins but the attorneys.

Going to court is only worth it in criminal cases and insurance/liability cases.

/s used to work at one of the largest lawfirms in the US.