After a review of the stunning verdict in March in Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker over the publishing of an excerpt of a sex tape, Florida Circuit Judge Pamela Campbell on Wednesday decided not to order a new trial nor touch the $140 million verdict. 
 
 The decision comes as the case has gained renewed attention thanks to a report that PayPal co-founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel provided financial backing to Hogan as the former professional wrestler pursued claims of having his privacy violated and his publicity rights infringed through an October 2012 post viewed by an estimated 7 million people. Campbell's decision will soon allow this dispute to proceed to a Florida appeals court. 
 
 Hogan — whose real name is Terry Bollea — pursued Gawker for showing him in sexual intercourse with Heather Cole, the then-wife of his best friend, Tampa-area radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge. The existence of the sex tape was reported by TMZ and The Dirty by the time that Gawker had published it alongside an A.J. Daulerio essay about celebrity sex tapes. Gawker attempted to argue that it was within its First Amendment right to decide what was newsworthy, but after a two-week trial that ended in May, a jury decided that Hogan's privacy outweighed this. The jury handed down $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million more in punitive damages. 
 
 At the hearing Wednesday, Gawker's attorney Seth Berlin urged a remittitur (a reducing or throwing out a jury verdict) and compared the jury's damages determination to awards against tobacco companies in trials over smoking deaths. He commented that it would be "one of the largest in Florida's history and grossly excessive compared to the conduct at issue." 
 
 In response, Hogan's attorney Shane Vogt argued that Gawker was stopped from making these arguments and said there's no evidence that the jury acted with passion or prejudice. He said the $25 million punitive damages verdict was "low," but also "proof" that the jury followed the judge's instruction not to bankrupt Gawker. He also said this "is a first-impression case. You can throw all those other cases out the window." 
 
 Explaining further, Vogt said, "For the first time, the jury has put a value on privacy. This is not like the tobacco cases. We live in a world where privacy is much more important. Everyone has a cellphone camera. There are drones out there." 
 
 Now that the judge has determined what Gawker must pay, the case moves to the appellate stage where the Nick Denton-owned company is set to rally behind free speech and free press under the First Amendment plus further argue that it didn't get a fair trial thanks to Campbell's jury instructions and evidence that the judge precluded from being heard. Hogan's battle with Gawker has certainly sent a loud message, but the lessons being drawn from this case are still being shaped. 
 
 As for Thiel, Gawker asked the judge for the opportunity to conduct discovery about who is funding Hogan. 
 
 "In last 24 hours hours, news reports have come out about Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel," said Berlin. "We believe this potentially relates to our efforts to get relief. We would like a limited amount of leave to get to the bottom of it." 
 
 Judge Campbell shrugged off the news reports, not ruling definitively until Gawker formally brings a motion, but seeming to not pay it much heed. “I don’t like looking at all the stuff that’s published out there," she said. "It’s not healthy." 
 
 Vogt responded that litigation funding "happens all the time" and is governed by the Florida code of ethics for attorneys. He added, "Whatever they file, knowing what I know about litigation funding, we are going to look at this with an eye towards sanctions." 
 
 Before an appeal formally gets filed, a judge still needs to decide whether Gawker needs to post a $50 million bond to stay the judgment pending the appeal and whether Hogan can in the meantime conduct his own discovery about Gawker's finances to advance his collection efforts. There's also a pending Gawker motion arguing for dismissal on the basis of fraud upon the court. The next hearing is scheduled for June 10. ||||| Legal scholars were as startled as anyone by the scale of the damages awarded by a Florida jury on Friday to the retired professional wrestler known as Hulk Hogan in his suit against Gawker.com for posting a sex tape. 
 
 But several experts on the First Amendment said on Saturday that the $115 million award was very likely to be reduced and that even if the verdict against Gawker survived scrutiny in higher courts, any wider effect on press freedoms was likely to be limited. 
 
 The celebrity former wrestler and reality television star, whose real name is Terry G. Bollea, sued Gawker for invasion of privacy after the website posted in 2012 a black-and-white tape made in 2007 that showed Mr. Bollea having sex with the wife of a friend of his at the time, Todd Clem, a radio shock jock who had legally changed his name to Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. Mr. Bollea said the videotape was made and distributed without his permission. 
 
 The jury’s award of damages was greater than Mr. Bollea asked for, an indication of how strongly the six jurors condemned Gawker for posting the intimate scenes. The court could still add punitive damages. ||||| The jury in Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy suit against Gawker Media awarded the ex-wrestler $115 million on Friday. 
 
 The six person jury in St. Petersburg, Florida -- four women and two men -- deliberated for nearly six hours. 
 
 Hogan, dressed all in black including a black bandana, cried when the verdict was announced. 
 
 The ex-wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, had sued Gawker, founder Nick Denton and former editor A.J. Daulerio for posting the nearly two-minute segment of a Hogan sex tape in 2012. Hogan's suit claimed Gawker violated his privacy and sought $100 million. 
 
 "Mr. Bollea is exceptionally happy. This is not only his victory today, but also anyone else who's been victimized by tabloid journalism," his lawyer David Houston said outside the courtroom. Hogan stood quietly behind the lawyer, his sunglasses failing to conceal dried tears on his cheeks. 
 
 But he tweeted "Thank you God for justice." 
 
 Thank you God for justice,only love 4Life. HH — Hulk Hogan (@HulkHogan) March 19, 2016 
 
 The jury must still consider whether to impose punitive damages next week. 
 
 "We're coming back Monday for the rest of it," Houston said. 
 
 Gawker's legal team, which had argued that posting the video was protected by the First Amendment, appeared to have anticipated a costly verdict. Lawyers for the New York news site issued a statement shortly after the jury retired to begin deliberations. The statement mentioned the jury's inability to consider a trove of recently unsealed documents related to the case. 
 
 "It may be necessary for the appeals court to resolve this case," the statement said. 
 
 Denton read from a prepared statement outside the courthouse Friday evening that said, "Given key evidence and the most important witness were both improperly withheld from this jury, we all knew the appeals court will need to resolve the case. ... That's why we feel very positive about the appeal that we have already begun preparing, as we expect to win this case ultimately." 
 
 The "most important witness" Denton referred to was radio host Bubba "The Love Sponge" Clem who made the video. The judge in the case quashed Gawker's subpoena to have Clem testify, citing his lack of trustworthiness. 
 
 The jury awarded Hogan $55 million for economic injuries and $60 million for emotional distress. Those same jurors will reconvene next week to consider punitive damages on top of the $115 million already awarded. 
 
 Related: Hulk Hogan jury to be spared watched full 30 minute sex tape 
 
 Florida law requires an appealing party to post a bond for the full amount of damages, but that requirement is capped at $50 million. Denton has been candid about the financial threat posed by the lawsuit. In January, he sold a minority stake in Gawker Media, which he founded in 2002, for the first time as an additional layer of protection. 
 
 In closing arguments earlier in the day, Hogan attorney Kenneth Turkel tried to paint the Gawker defendants as indecent gossip-mongers who make a mockery of journalism. 
 
 Turkel told the jury that Daulerio "didn't have the common decency" to reach out to any of the parties involved before he posted the video excerpts and the commentary, which "probably tells you all you need to know about Gawker." 
 
 Turkel invoked a 2013 interview in which Denton said "invasion of privacy has incredibly positive effects on society." 
 
 "Who thinks like that?" the attorney asked incredulously. 
 
 Related: Hogan's partner on tape is emotional in testimony 
 
 On two occasions, Turkel seemed to suggest that Denton and his company don't share the Florida jury's values. 
 
 "This guy is up there in New York sitting behind a computer playing god with other people's lives," Turkel said of Denton. Turkel also scoffed that Daulerio wrote in his 2012 commentary that "the Internet has made it easier for all of us to be shameless voyeurs and deviants." 
 
 "I'm not so sure all of us are shameless voyeurs and deviants," Turkel said. "They may be up there on Fifth Avenue at Gawker." 
 
 Related: Gawker founder forced to read from sex tape transcript 
 
 Gawker attorney Michael Sullivan restated the company's free speech argument that's been the bedrock of the defense's case. The First Amendment, he told jurors, protects unpopular speech. 
 
 "What the plaintiff asks you to do is easy: to feel sympathy for Mr. Bollea, to muster your dislike and disdain for Gawker," Sullivan said. "What we ask you to do is harder, very hard, but ultimately it is right." 
 
 Related: Why Hogan settled for $5,000 with the man who made the tape 
 
 Sullivan warned that Hogan's lawsuit could have a chilling effect on free press if "powerful celebrities, politicians and public figures would use our courts to punish people." 
 
 "We will all be worse off as a result," he said. 
 
 Sullivan downplayed the raunchiness of the nearly two-minute video package that was posted on Gawker, which only included nine seconds of sex. He ridiculed Hogan's lawyers for opting against showing the excerpts in court. 
 
 Sullivan also sought to raise doubts that Hogan was unaware he was being recorded inside Clem's bedroom, where Hogan had sex with Clem's then-wife. The attorney noted that Hogan could be heard on the tape asking about cameras, and that the plaintiff was surely aware that Clem was in an open marriage and had a propensity for recording his wife in the act.
– Former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million by a jury Friday in his lawsuit against Gawker, which published a sex tape featuring the Hulkster in 2012, the AP reports. It's $15 million more than he was asking. According to Ars Technica, which points out punitive damages could still be added to the total, the loss in court could be a "life-threatening event" for Gawker, which has around 250 employees. Gawker published a video of Hogan having sex with the wife of his friend Todd Clem—aka Bubba the Love Sponge—made at Clem's insistence. Clem had recorded the encounter, possibly without Hogan's knowledge. Hogan cried when the jury revealed its findings after nearly six hours of deliberations, CNN reports. In their closing arguments Friday, Hogan's lawyers argued the video was a violation of his privacy. "Gawker took a secretly recorded sex tape and put it on the Internet," the AP quotes Hogan's attorneys. Gawker's attorneys argued the site had a "legitimate news reason" for publishing the video as a "commentary on the ordinariness of celebrity sex videos." One of the website's lawyers went on to warn that if Hogan's suit was successful, "the Internet as we know it will cease to exist." In addition to Gawker, the jury found founder Nick Denton and former editor Albert Daulerio (who made headlines for saying he'd consider publishing the sex tape of anyone over the age of 5) personally liable. Gawker says it only made about $11,000 from publishing the sex tape and took outside investment for the first time to cover potential costs from the trial.