It’s not champerty. The whole “this is champerty! this used to be illegal!” angle comes from bad writers with thin ideas clinging to antiquated legal terminology to fake competence.

It’s not illegal to simply finance someone’s lawsuit.

It’s not illegal to finance a lawsuit simply because you believe in it.

It’s not illegal to give someone money in order to help them win a lawsuit that you want them to win.

If you think it should be, please explain to us why and then cross your fingers hoping that no one you love or support ever has to defend themselves and has no money to pay for it.

If Peter Thiel was a regular guy who mortgaged his house and sold everything he owned to defend his regular friend in a defamation suit against the National Enquirer he would be written about on Medium as the second-coming of christ.

But he’s a billionaire, a “not regular guy”, a previously-and-preferably closeted gay man, and he’s supporting a case because he doesn’t believe in a limitless (meaning, one free from slander, libel, or invasions of privacy) freedom of the press, so people feel fine thinking he’s an asshole and he’s a piece of shit for what he did.

If Elon Musk sent Gawker $140M to save them you’d want him nominated for a Nobel prize and wouldn’t even not-know what champerty is.

Get real.