Openly gay PayPal cofounder and sworn enemy to Gawker Media, Peter Thiel, was named as the secret legal fees funder to former wrestler Hulk Hogan’s sex tape lawsuit against Gawker.
Hogan sued Gawker for releasing a sex tape featuring Hogan and the wife of well-known radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge, according to Forbes magazine.
Thiel, who is also one of the earliest backers of Facebook and valued around $2.7 billion, publicly attacked Gawker in 2007 when the media site’s Silicon Valley-focused publication, Valleywag, attempted to out the tech billionaire. Thiel publicly came out on his own in 2009.
Thiel has not held back when given the opportunity to attack Gawker, saying they have the “psychology of a terrorist” and are “the Silicon Valley equivalent of Al Qaeda.”
The lawsuit, filed in St. Petersburg, goes back to October 4, 2012 when Gawker released a 1 minute, 41 second video of Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, engaged in sexual relations with a woman. The tape features Hogan and Bubba’s wife having sex. Hogan says the tape was from more than a decade ago when he was “going through a difficult time with [his then] wife,” and was filmed without his knowledge.
Hogan filed a lawsuit against Gawker Media, the company’s CEO, Gawker’s editor-in-chief, Bubba the Love Sponge and Bubba’s wife Heather Clem eleven days after the tape appeared online.
During the proceeding court case, Hogan testified that Todd Clem, who legally changed his name to Bubba the Love Sponge in 1999, encouraged Hogan to sleep with Heather Clem. Bubba and Heather officially divorced in 2011.
Clem settled out of court and Hogan moved forward with a lawsuit against Gawker. The case went to trial in St. Petersburg March 7.
The jury sided with Hogan and ordered Gawker to pay him $140 million March 18. Gawker appealed.
“According to these reports, a board member of Facebook and a major funder of The Committee to Protect Journalists has been secretly funding a legal campaign against our journalists,” Gawker said in a statement.“We trust the appeals court will correct the outsized Florida jury verdict and reaffirm the law that protects a free and critical press, which is more embattled and important than ever.”
A Pinellas County judge refused to reduce the verdict May 25, a day after Forbes reported that Thiel was involved financially with Hogan’s legal team.
Thiel declined to comment in the Forbes story, but spoke with The New York Times May 25 confirming that he has been the secret financer for Hogan in his court battle against Gawker.
In the interview, Thiel also said he is financially supporting at least one other lawsuit against the media company.
Forbes reports that it is not illegal for an outside entity to fund another party’s lawsuit and the practice has become common in the U.S., even allowing for the third party to negotiate for a portion of the proceeds from the suit.
It is unknown if Thiel will receive a cut of Hogan’s $140 million award.
