Christian Porter Accepted Anonymous Cash To Help Pay Off His Defamation Lawsuit
His legal fees are estimated to be $1 million.
Christian Porter had some of his legal fees paid by anonymous donors in his $1 million defamation case against the ABC. He claims he doesn’t know who the donors are.
Content Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault.
Porter declared on Monday that a blind trust had made a “part contribution” and that “as a potential beneficiary [he has] no access to information about the conduct and funding of the trust”.
His senior counsel’s fees alone are somewhere around $600,000, at a bare minimum, according to The Guardian.
Very conveniently, a blind trust means that Mr Porter has no clue who bankrolled him or how much they handed over, according to the ABC.
The money went towards paying his lawyers and filing the lawsuit, which was settled out-of-court in May. Porter was challenging an article by Four Corners reporting historical rape allegations, which he denies.
“Christian Porter’s claim to have no idea who funded his million-dollar legal case is an outrageous abuse of his office,” said Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, noting that the Australian public deserves to know who made the donation, especially if the people involved get something in return for their donations.
Malcolm Turnbull said in an interview on Wednesday that the helping hand was a “shocking affront to transparency” and compared the situation to a “guy in a mask who dropped off a chaff bag full of cash”.
Last month, Christian Porter was promoted to acting leader of the house despite the allegations, and after being asked to step down from his position as attorney-general back in March.