Billionaire Lawfare Weaponizes Courts to Silence Critics and Eliminate Competition

A pattern emerged across 2008–2024 of wealthy individuals and corporations using expensive litigation as a strategic weapon — filing defamation suits, SLAPP suits, and antitrust claims not to win but to exhaust opponents financially. High-profile cases involving Hulk Hogan v. Gawker (funded by Peter Thiel), Elon Musk's litigation against critics, and corporate trade-secret suits illustrated how asymmetric legal resources convert courts into tools of political and market suppression.