Late last week, we told you about the latest development in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker for publishing clips of a sex video recorded without his knowledge. Various news agencies and media companies, most notably the Associated Press and Scripps, had filed a motion to unseal the FBI case file of the investigation into an extortion attempt made using the sex videos. Gawker had successfully sued to get a copy of the case file, but the judge overseeing the Hogan case made it “eyes only” to each side’s lawyers it when they filed the information in court.
This means that it’s sealed off to everyone else, including Gawker founder Nick Denton and the media. Hence the motion to unseal it, which could be bad for Hogan because we now know the contents include the transcript of his racist tirade among other things. The media companies argued that with Florida’s open records laws, the judge in the Gawker-FBI lawsuit ruling the case file was public record, and the sealing being highly unusual, the records should be made public.
Well, on Friday, we told you that, per the Associated Press, Judge Pamela Campbell had ruled against the motion just a day after it was filed. No reason was given, which was strange. Well, it turns out that the Associated Press actually messed up a story about themselves, as they issued a correction last night. It turns out that the motion struck down last week was an earlier attempt to unseal from the Summer. The timing appears coincidental.
