No need to apologize, just reposition your original post.

What the fake Doc objects to, on your blog, is the word (and link) fraud

That word, verbatim, is contained in the linked blog document.

So merely issue a correction, to the effect that he is reported to be a fraud

Now you are stating a fact, and therefore not libeling the fraudster, technically.

I would, if I were you, blow this up again and again - report the fact of the reported characterization as a fraud - then lay out all the facts, and exhort your readers to decide, based on the facts, whether the guy, in their own, privileged opinions, is a fraud, or should be commended as a legitimate Ph.D and held in the adoring light he heretofore enjoyed.

On that basis, there is no defamation, and no issue of liability on your part, but you will be continuing your very worthwhile campaign to expose and defrock the fraudster.

If a school doesn’t use the word accredited, it usually means they are not…i.e. a second-rate school, often a degree mill.

Now to be honest, doctorates outside the hard sciences really don’t mean much any more no matter what institution issues them. What should more embarrassing for Gray is all those years he spent as the Maharishi’s gofer.

As to Columbia Pacific University, the article discussing its shutdown plus a phone call to the appropriate State department should clarify whether what was published is accurate or not. In any event, John Gray really does not want the negative publicity that a suit against a blogger could bring, especially since smoke almost always leads to fire in the case of someone who has gone to two, not just one, diploma mills.