Mick Gatto, a veteran of the underworld, is suing the ABC for defamation, and Christian Porter, a former attorney general, is his attorney.
After the May election, Mr. Porter announced his retirement from politics and dropped his own defamation lawsuit against the ABC.
In a 2019 piece, which Mr. Gatto said implied he was a hitman and killer who threatened to kill gangland lawyer turned police informant Nicola Gobbo, Mr. Gatto sued the public broadcaster and reporters Nino Bucci and Sarah Farnsworth.
The article’s author, Mr. Gatto, initially asked for an apology, but he then asked for the “maximum payout” in a defamation case in Victoria’s Supreme Court.
He lost the lawsuit, and his appeal request to the Victorian Court of Appeal was also denied. That was not the end of the road for Mr. Gatto, he vowed.
‘I’m going to fight tooth and nail all the way,’ he said.
Now, he is requesting special permission to appeal to the High Court.
Also, Mr. Gatto is being represented by attorneys Guy Reynolds and Daniel Ward.
In response to revelations that surfaced old rape claims against an anonymous cabinet minister, Mr. Porter filed his own defamation lawsuit against the ABC and investigative reporter Louise Milligan.
Mr. Porter acknowledged that he was the minister in issue and refuted all charges. After the ABC agreed to include an editor’s note in the reports, he decided to end the matter in May 2021.