He calls it a “conspiracy,” which to him is not a pejorative. Thiel referred to his financing of Hogan’s lawsuit as "one of my greater philanthropic things that I've done," but many people would simply call it retribution. Thiel, the most prominent Trump supporter in Silicon Valley, had been enraged at Gawker Media since 2007, when he was outed as gay by Gawker’s technology gossip site Valleywag. Two months after the Gawker verdict, The New York Times reported that the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, had financed Hogan’s lawsuit to the tune of over $10 million. Gawker Media provides significant insights about the role of financial power in litigation and, not coincidentally, the legal ethics of Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder. More than just a courtroom soap opera, Bollea v. There was a lot more to it than that, however, as Holiday explains in profound detail. Hogan eventually settled for $31 million, and Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy, which appeared to be the end of the matter. The trial, which ended in March 2017, resulted in a staggering $140 million verdict against Gawker Media and its founder Nick Denton. The issue in the case was 's publication of a short clip from a secretly recorded video, in which Hogan was shown having sex with his best friend's wife. was a gossip heavy and highly profitable website-among several others operated by Gawker Media-best known for a prurient obsession with celebrities and willingness to publish almost anything that would attract clicks and page views. Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) was a retired professional wrestler who had become famous for flexing his muscles in center-ring, shredding his ripped tee-shirt, and occasionally touting his sexual abilities in promotions and interviews. When Hulk Hogan sued Gawker Media for invasion of privacy, it first seemed like a battle of loudmouths, with nothing much at stake other than entertainment value. Even so, the president would not have known the full story of the Gawker case, which only became public with the recent release of Ryan Holiday’s fascinating book, Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue. Surely aware of Harder’s success, Trump also retained him in the Stormy Daniels litigation. A year earlier, Harder had been the lead plaintiff’s attorney in a spectacular lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media, which resulted in a massive verdict that propelled Gawker into bankruptcy. Rather than rely on a fixer, like Michael Cohen, or a fixture, like Rudy Giuliani, Trump chose Charles Harder, a Los Angeles attorney who made his bones bringing media companies to their knees. Trump must have realized that even as president he could not prevent the publication of Fire and Fury, but his choice of counsel was inspired. Seeking to control the damage-or perhaps just change the narrative-Trump retained an attorney to send an eleven-page “cease and desist” letter to Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt & Co., threatening suit for defamation, invasion of privacy, tortious interference with contract, and various other causes of action. Leaked excerpts of the book showed Trump’s administration as full of “chaos and dysfunction,” with advisors and family members routinely sniping at one another while competing for the fleeting attention of their uninformed boss. In the filing, Gawker said its assets are estimated to be worth $50 million to $100 million, whereas its liabilities are estimated to be between $100 million and $500 million.President Trump has always been infuriated by bad press, and never more than when he learned of last January's impending publication of Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. Media company Ziff Davis LLC has entered into an agreement to buy Gawker in a bankruptcy auction for a little less than $100 million, according to a people familiar with the matter. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, is listed as the largest creditor in Gawker's bankruptcy filing. Billionaire investor Peter Thiel, an early backer of Facebook and a co-founder of PayPal had bankrolled Hogan's lawsuit. The move will intensify public debate in the United States over the role of big money in media lawsuits. judge to pay $140 million to former wrestler Hulk Hogan over the publication of a sex tape, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday and is planning to put itself up for sale. Gawker Media LLC, the online publisher ordered by a U.S. Nick Denton, founder of Gawker, in a Florida courtroom in March.
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