Hulk Hogan suing Gawker for allegedly leaking sealed recordings
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hulk Hogan is trying to take down Gawker one more time.
After his $140 million legal victory against the gossip Web site, the famous pro-wrestler has filed a second lawsuit over his surreptitiously recorded sex tapes — hitting the site with a new claim for allegedly leaking sealed court documents to the National Enquirer that quoted him making racists remarks.
In a 2007 encounter with his best friend’s wife, Hogan unleashed an ugly tirade about his daughter Brooke’s black boyfriend.“I mean, I’d rather if she was going to f–k some n—-r, I’d rather have her marry an 8-foot-tall n—-r worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player! I guess we’re all a little racist. F—ing n—-r,” Hogan said, according to a transcript of the recording.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}WWE immediately fired Hogan, scrubbing his name from its Web site and Hall of Fame. His “income was cut off, his legacy in entertainment was severely damaged (if not completely destroyed), and his global brand was forever tarnished,” the new Florida suit says.
Hogan says Gawker slipped the transcript, which was filed under seal in the then-pending suit between the two parties over a second sex tape with the same woman, Heather Clem. At the time, Clem was married to Hogan’s best friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.The National Enquirer published the story, which “Gawker had been threatening to release publicly for months,” in July, according to the suit.
Just as the Enquirer posted the damaging transcript online, Gawker CEO Nick Denton wrote a piece on his blog predicting that Hogan’s “real secret” would soon be revealed, the suit says.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Minutes later, Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio tweeted to Hogan “XOXOXO” with a link to the Enquirer posting that included the confidential transcript, according to court papers.
Hogan immediately admitted that he had made the offensive remarks and apologized.
In the new suit, Hogan is also going after a group of Florida residents, including another radio DJ named Mike “Cowhead” Calta, for sending at least one of his secretly recorded sex tapes to Gawker.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Law-enforcement officials declined to pursue criminal charges against Calta and others involved in the alleged leak.
Gawker is appealing the $140 million jury verdict over the first sex tape and has denied that it leaked the sealed transcript to the Enquirer.
The new suit is for unspecified money damages.
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