• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 4, 2016

Gawker Media is down, but it’s not out. The pioneering online publisher, whose sites are now owned by Univision, is building a war chest to vindicate itself in the high-profile court case brought against its now-defunct flagship site, Gawker.com, by professional wrestler and reality TV star Terry Gene Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan.

According to documents filed by Gawker Media with a bankruptcy court in New York City, and first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the publisher is asking the judge’s permission to set aside $5.5 million from the sale of its sites to Univision to fund its appeal against the $130 million judgment issued by a Florida jury in March. 

In the court filing, Gawker Media’s lawyers expressed confidence that the publisher would succeed in getting the devastating judgment awarded to Bollea by the jury overturned or at least reduced. That would obviously benefit its bottom line, thus justifying further expenditures on legal representation amid bankruptcy proceedings.

Bollea sued Gawker for invasion of privacy after it published part of a sex tape he said was made without his knowledge back in 2012. In March, the jury awarded him $115 million plus another $15 million in punitive damages, forcing Gawker Media and its founder, Nick Denton, to declare bankruptcy.

It was later revealed that Bollea’s lawsuit was funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who has supported a number of legal complaints against Gawker in retribution for one of its sites, Valleywag, outing him as gay back in 2007.

Following Gawker Media’s bankruptcy declaration in June, in August, Univision bought most of its properties for $135 million, including Deadpsin, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel and Kotaku. However, Univision didn’t buy the flagship site Gawker.com, which ceased operations on August 22.

 In a post not long after the jury issued its judgment, Denton outlined a number of reasons he believes the judgment will be overturned on appeal.

Among other things, Denton disputed one of the central claims of the prosecution, namely that Hogan (real name Terry Gene Bollea) was unaware that he was being videotaped when he slept with Heather Clem, the wife of his friend, radio shock jock Bubba Clem.

According to statements Denton claims Bubba made to the FBI, Hogan was aware that Clem had wired his bedroom to record his own sexual encounters, and that he would be recording Hogan’s encounter with his wife. However, Gawker’s lawyers were barred from presenting this evidence to the jury.

Denton also claimed that Hogan’s lawsuit wasn’t intended to seek redress for the publication of the sex tape, but actually to prevent publication of another video, in which he is heard using racist language.