Once bitten: Days after his $1b court loss, Murdoch drops Crikey lawsuit
Lachlan Murdoch has withdrawn his defamation lawsuit against the publishers of online news site Crikey.
The case was marked âdiscontinued/withdrawnâ on the Federal Court website on Friday morning.
Mr Murdochâs lawyer John Churchill maintains there was no truth to the allegations made by Crikey.
âMr Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favour,â he said in a statement.
âHowever he does not wish to further enable Crikeyâs use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled.â
The media mogulâs legal team called the case a âmarketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their (Crikeyâs) profitsâ.
The move comes days after the Fox News network settled a lawsuit with a US voting system provider for $1.2 billion over false claims aired in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election.
Mr Churchill says the American case was irrelevant to Crikeyâs litigation because the US plaintiff did not argue that Mr Murdoch was personally responsible for the January 6 uprising, which is what the Australian news site alleged.
Regardless Crikeyâs legal team, headed by Michael Bradley from Marque Lawyers, was satisfied with the result.
âHeâll (Lachlan Murdoch) be up for Crikeyâs legal costs. We and our client are well pleased,â the firmâs Twitter statement said.
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Mr Murdoch sued Crikeyâs publishers Private Media over an allegedly defamatory June 29 opinion piece that was taken down and then re-posted on August 15.
Crikey political editor Bernard Keane, former editor-in-chief Peter Fray, chairman Eric Beecher and CEO Will Hayward were also named in the lawsuit.
Mr Murdoch alleged the article titled âTrump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspiratorâ conveyed a meaning that he illegally conspired with Mr Trump to âincite a mob with murderous intent to march on the Capitolâ in Washington DC on January 6.
In its defence, Crikey said Mr Murdoch was âmorally and ethically culpableâ for the attack on the Capitol.
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