Week 2 of the Hulk Hogan sex tape trial started today, and it’s already looking like it’ll be every bit as strange as Week 1. Hogan is, once again, outfitted in a formal black durag in the courtroom, and this morning, he watched as former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio took the stand and offered up testimony. Daulerio wrote the copy for the story that went up along with the sex tape featuring Hogan and his former best friend Bubba the Love Sponge’s ex-wife Heather Clem that Gawker posted back in 2012, so he obviously had a lot to talk about with regards to Gawker’s decision to post the tape. And things got tense on the stand, according to tweets sent out by Tampa Bay Times reporter Anna Phillips, who has been all over covering the trial.
Things didn't necessarily start out that way. While being questioned by a Gawker attorney, Daulerio talked about how he first learned that the Hulk Hogan sex tape existed:
He also said that he was “amused” after he watched it for the first time:
And he talked about why he felt it was a good idea to post the sex tape on Gawker while pointing out that he wanted to focus on the things Hogan and Clem said on the tape as opposed to the parts that showed them having sex:
But the mood changed when Hogan’s lawyer open up his line of questioning. Hogan’s attorney started things off by referring to a sarcastic comment Daulerio made during his pre-trial deposition in 2013 when he said that he wouldn’t consider posting a sex tape featuring a 4-year-old child:
The attorney also took a shot at Daulerio for the smirk he had on his face during his deposition:
He attempted to get Daulerio to paint Gawker founder Nick Denton in a negative light:
And he also spent several minutes focused on how Gawker chose not to censor Hogan’s penis out of the sex tape. He peppered Daulerio with questions about it and even read a line straight from his story that featured Daulerio referring to Hogan’s penis as being “the size of a Thermos you’d find in a child’s lunchbox”:
Things get especially tense around the 35:30 mark of the clip at the top of the post. See for yourself, and stay tuned for more coverage of the trial.
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