Another wrench just got thrown in the private life of Hulk Hogan. Today, the Associated Press reported on a motion that they filed in Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker.

As you may recall, about three years ago, Gawker published an article about being sent one of the videos that shows Hogan engaged in sexual relations with Heather Clem. The videos were shot on the Clem family home security system without Hogan’s knowledge, and Gawker included a “highlight reel” of the video they were sent with the article.

Hogan sued Gawker right away, and Gawker later sued the FBI for the records of their investigation into Hogan being extorted by a third party over the videos. Gawker quickly won the FBI case, but the judge in the Hogan case ruled that the products of that investigation(including a video and transcript of Hogan’s racist rant) must be sealed. The AP and its fellow intervenors want the records unsealed.

Charles Tobin, who filed the motion, said that “It’s highly unusual for this much secrecy to surround a civil proceeding. Ordinarily, whether it’s a celebrity or an average citizen, once you ask the court to help solve a dispute you open the proceedings up to public review. What’s going on in Hulk Hogan’s case certainly is not the norm when it comes to public transparency of the courts.”



Here’s what we can add on top of what the AP noted in their own report:

  • Joining the Associated Press in filing the intervening motion are First Look Media (The Intercept and Reported.ly), WFTS TV (a Tampa, FL TV station), WPTV TV (a West Palm Beach, FL TV station), Scripps Media (owns many local newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations), Journal Broadcast Group (a multimedia company that recently merged with Scripps), and the Tampa Bay Times.
  • The argument is, essentially, that the files were ruled public information in Gawker’s lawsuit against the FBI, and Florida’s own state laws err on the side of court records being incredibly open. But…
  • …even if there was a time where the sealing was warranted, the argument is that Hogan demanding an investigation into a potential leak means the records must go public because he put them at issue.


While none of the intervenors would be expected to publish the sex tapes if this action succeeded, it wouldn’t really matter since they’d be ruled public record and someone else would release them.