On the very same day (Wednesday) that we got the announcement about Jason Knauf’s impending resignation, Knauf was given credit for “helping” the Duchess of Sussex win her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday. For months, the Mail’s lawyers claimed they had sources/evidence that Jason Knauf was co-author of Meghan’s letter to her father, therefore the copyright of the letter did not belong to Meghan alone. The lawsuit dragged out because of this supposed fuzziness around the copyright until Knauf submitted a letter to the court clarifying that he merely read Meghan’s letter and offered a suggestion about something she should include (a reference to Thomas Markle’s health). Incidentally, we also know that Knauf was in contact with Thomas Markle throughout 2018, even past the time when Meghan stopped speaking to her toxic father. But anyway, there’s an update on Meghan’s lawsuit and Knauf’s involvement:
The Duchess of Sussex won her copyright battle over a letter to her father after an ‘unequivocal and definitive’ intervention from her former aide, the High Court ruled yesterday. Jason Knauf, former communications secretary at Kensington Palace, rendered the Mail on Sunday’s case ‘unreal’, said Lord Justice Warby.
Yesterday he handed another victory to Meghan as he ruled against the newspaper for publishing extracts from the letter she sent Thomas Markle after the 2018 royal wedding. She had sued the title – the Daily Mail’s sister newspaper – for breach of privacy and copyright, and has now won on both points.
The duchess asked for the damages owed to her to reflect the money the newspaper made from publishing the articles about her letter. The judge has ordered the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online to work out the profits – which will be considered at another court hearing in October.
But Lord Justice Warby threw out a claim by Meghan’s lawyers that the newspaper’s lawyers had acted dishonestly in the case. He ruled it had not been unreasonable for the newspaper to mount a defence to the duchess’s copyright claim on the basis that it believed evidence would show Mr Knauf had helped Meghan write the letter.
Mr Knauf made it clear through his solicitors that although he had given the duchess advice on a draft, he did not believe this made him a ‘co-author’ and he had no claim on its copyright. The judge said Mr Knauf’s position was ‘unequivocal and definitive’, and had the effect of undermining the Mail on Sunday’s case.
A front page statement on the outcome of the case, ordered by Lord Justice Warby, is on hold pending the outcome of an application the Mail on Sunday has lodged with the Court of Appeal.
Giving Knauf credit for telling the truth at the eleventh hour, as if he was doing Meghan some kind of favor, isn’t sitting well with me. I’ll be honest, I have a good memory for details, but this lawsuit and all of the contradictory reporting around it (much of it coming from the Mail) has left me confused about so much. I have many conspiracy theories about all of this, and I know I’m not alone. I think Knauf was actively leaking against Meghan, specifically about this lawsuit, and it would not surprise me at all if Knauf was running to the Mail for the past two years in the hopes of hurting Meghan’s case. I also think Knauf’s conversations with Thomas Markle should be examined in greater detail. But it’s *so weird* that suddenly Knauf intervened in Meghan’s favor and just as suddenly, he’s stepping down from the Royal Foundation. When Meghan’s lawsuit really started to go her way, I had the sense that powerful strings were being pulled and favors were being called in, all so there wouldn’t be further examination of the toxic cesspool that is Clarence House and Kensington Palace. Maybe we’ll never know what really happened here.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
We know it was you, Willfredo.
Yes and jason would have helped the fail if they had a chance of winning, or that the RF would have succeeded in ” forcing Meghan to settle out of court. I bet he only backed out when he realised Meghan had a strong case, and that he had to prove his point with evidence he didn’t have.
Exactly. He didn’t intervene in Meghan’s favor, he saved himself from perjury. Those are not the same things.
Plus, it’s on the record that the DM’s lawyers tried to reach Jason in Nov and Dec 2020 to get him to give evidence that would help the DM’s case – where would they get that idea? Why wouldn’t Jason “intervene” then? Sounds to me like Jason promised the DM a media circus, where the truth didn’t matter, just the spin, but Meghan called their bluff with receipts. Please let’s not rewrite history and give Jason even an half ounce of credit, that would be an injustice all on its own.
Of course we do. Not even the strongest detergent from Procter and Gamble can wash the stench of this one away.
I see what you did there. 😉
That desperate stretch from the fail could be seen alll the way in my flat at Bristol 😀😀😀😀.
I guess it’s better than to say their lawyers “own goaled ” themselves by coping Meghan’s lawyers in an email begging for evidence from snake Jason, making Meghan’s lawyers job easy and also winning more money
Their lawyers were so incompetent :they sent emails to Sunshine like wtf?
When did sunshine Sachs PR start practicing law? Shillings you mean
To be fair, they had already lost even without that own goal. It was just the cherry on top because Meghan changed her mind from asking for a nominal fee to asking for more an account of their profits.
So perhaps he is also lying about Meghan being a bully. Once caught lying, everything else you say is suspect.
Julia , of course he was lying . I believe he saw pple crying and without listening to reason automatically believed they were bullied by the mean monster Meghan. That’s why he couldn’t provide specifics and the pple who supposedly made those claims were not in support of him reporting it
Yeah he also messed that up because the supposed victim asked that the complaints be retracted. Those bullying claims and the investigation will never be mentioned again now that Jason is gone.
@Julia k: You bring up a good point about the bullying accusations. How can his word be credible and taken seriously when he was willing to lie, until someone told him not to, in the copyright case?
Hahahahaha! Oh the parsel mouth slimy snakes! Fredo we KNEW it was YOU.
It feels a bit like the sudden changeup in the lawsuit against Paul Burrell, with the Queen ‘suddenly remembering’ that she’d agreed to let Burrell keep some of Diana’s possessions for safekeeping. Whom is he protecting by admitting what we knew all along – he didn’t write the letter, he had no rights over it.
I hope this doesn’t stop Meghan from pursuing investigations against KP staff, esp Knauf, for collusion with her father. And against the KP staffer’s boyfriend who took payments from Wootten to out their location in Canada.
Yes, Knauf helped her win the case definitively – I think she would have won it anyway, but his statement that he wasn’t claiming copyright helped.
The interesting thing though is – why didnt he say that earlier? Why drag it out to the 11th hour? Who was the “senior member of the royal household” who met with the MoS editor? And why does KP announce he is “leaving” the same day this ruling comes out?
What a mystery.
The senior member was William. The MoS editor never would have felt comfortable enough to pursue this foolish shared copyright angle in the case without someone from the very top supporting it. It’s one thing to have an underling like Knauf pass you stories. It’s a whole other thing to hinge your legal defense on someone like that. Nah, the Fail wouldn’t have done it unless they felt 100% comfortable. Hence the last-minute begging e-mails when Knauf didn’t come through.
I’ll also add that after the Oprah interview revelations, I wouldn’t be shocked if Charles was the one who spoke with the MoS.
I’m 50/50 as to whether it was William or whether it was Jason meeting with the editor and being very clear that he was speaking on behalf of William. He’s the head of their foundation, he’s worked with the Mail for years at this point to attack Meghan – I can see the editor taking him seriously. But I can also see William deciding to play his part to take Meghan down, as icky as that sounds.
The “Jason helped Meghan” story can’t be real can it?? He helped her the way an assassin decides not to assissinate a target because there are too many people watching. The MoS/DM lawyers leaked emails saying they tried to reach Jason last Nov/Dec because they needed his testimony to make their case. If Jason was ever a witness for Meghan, why would the defendant’s lawyers be emailing him in desperation?
I think he helped her only because he had to at this point – it was that or perjury and my guess is there was pressure from somewhere to come clean (BP? his own lawyers? IDK). He certainly didn’t want to, if he wanted to help her he would have spoken up ages ago.
She had already won her case, with or without Knauf. Knauf just saved them from going into further litigation on copyright. I wouldn’t even call it saving because he was being compelled to tell the truth by the court, not during a trial, but right now. He had no other choice unless he wanted to perjure himself, especially as the Queen’s lawyers said the crown doesn’t own copyright either.
Knauf saved no one but himself. He knew he was toast. Meghan knew she had an open and shut case. She didn’t drop the case. She was brave and courageous to have pursued it to the very end. And justice was served her.
Knauf betrayed everyone (with the imprimatur of William)— the Sussexes, MoS, ANL. He’s a bully and a coward. He just backed off to save himself; for fear of felony and a possible prison sentence, plus fines and probation. When push came to shove he and William are just two Scaredy-cats !
I guess if it’s “perjure myself or tell the truth,” you haven’t helped, you’ve decided not to commit a crime. Meghan benefitted, but he didn’t do this for her. I guess I should accept that this gray area will always benefit Jason/The Crown.
One thing I think about is that in a hundred years these pro-Meghan comment pages and tweets will disappear, but the British media’s news articles and Tv shows will be archived, treated as valid despite the machinations. Meghan and Harry’s new chapter will balance that out, but the sheer volume of the negative propaganda against them will give it a credibility it doesn’t deserve. Maybe that’s what the RF is counting on, posterity being kinder to them than the present moment.
That is why the court upped the costs MOS is on the hook for. Their attorneys should know that you don’t make an allegation in writing without solid proof to back that assertion. They just thought that the RF would be able to force Meghan to back down and this will never go any further than their allegations. Unfortunately for them Megahn did not come to play and refused to go along with the RF plans.
There are certain stories that were piping hot for a good week and then suddenly disappeared. The bullying story ,I think Meghan wanted them to exchange receipts so they backed off and also the Saudi Arabia jewelry story. The latter i think they said ‘Hold on,we have whole museams of stolen jewels and artifacts so this is not a good look.’ They clearly have the power when they want to dead certain stories.
The Daily Mail is being passive aggressive. They’re pissed beyond belief. KP is probably going through it behind the scenes. I mean, when he didn’t claim part owner of the letter, it effectively was a waste of time to begin with but it was the Mails only defense and he didn’t come through at all. So in a way, Jason did help Meghan from the Mails point of view, even if there was no merit.
I think that might be one of the many reasons they had to let knauff go
The DM is 100% pissed. Their only chance of winning was Jason perjuring himself, and KP must have led them to believe that would happen. Get ready to see some shady references to Rose, and Will/Kate providing a bunch of “exclusive” access to their kids.
Must agree with Kaiser that this law suit has been highly confusing.
Did the judge not say something along the lines that The Fail really did not have grounds for an appeal or am I confusing this with another lawsuit?
The judge said that the Mail didn’t have a case regarding Meghan owning the copyright of the letter (she owned it period), but he let them present a case where Jason was a co-author of the electronic letter which is the one he passed onto the mail (but the judge thought that that was a weak defense as well) and he was willing to hear about it. Since Jason retracted the Judge said that there would be no more appeals on the matter.
@BTB The judge definitely said that the Heil’s case was so weak that he refused to allow them to appeal. So, of course, they tried another angle – and failed again.
What I love is that Meghan is not asking for straightforward damages, but a portion of the revenues generated by the Heil’s spurious stories – thus not allowing them to profit from their stories about her in relation to the letter to her hideous father. I hope this judgment stings and stings. If only there were a way in which they could be prevented from making money from her full stop. (This also goes for the Excess, the Dim and every other vindictive, wretched little tabloid.)
Yes,@Andrew’s Nemesis, I agree, asking for a share of the profits probably hurts the Mail more financially than a lump sum, but I also think forcing them to give up disclosure to the court on how much and in what ways they profit from stories could also be painful for them. Nobody likes having to display their internal workings in court!
I would love for them to have to disclose the amount of stories centred on Meghan per year as well as how much she contributes to their bottom line totally, but that’s for another day.
He did and they don’t but they can make a final appeal to the High Court if they so wish. They have but I don’t think they will succeed. In any case, there’s still the aspect of the GDPR that I don’t believe I’ve seen any judgement on yet. It’s possible I missed it.
I remember as well that Jason was actively helping the Mail in their defense and he was actively leaking. The palaces asked Meghan and Harry to step down several times saying that the loss would humiliate them, instead they persisted and when it was clear that the Judge was going to rule in favor of Meghan, the palaces start running for the hills and cutting their losses along the way. He was ordered to stop so the inner workings of the smear campaign wouldn’t be brought to light. The fact that he is to step down from his role and doesn’t have another royal job in his future but is instead set to leave the country speaks volume just to how radioactive is Jason right now.
Right right right. Which is why “Jason helped Meghan” cannot be what’s written in the history books, at least not on this sane corner of the internet. He helped her by admitting he couldn’t help her enemy… that’s not how help works.
Jason did the opposite of helping Meghan. He in fact helped the MoS until he realized he might have to become a witness and be cross examined. Tons of projection in this article.
Surely being a witness was always a possibility and one J would have had to consider from the start?
Knauf was the one crying to Roya Nikkhah that the Palace 4 didn’t get their chance to testify against Meghan when she won the summary judgment. What changed to make him deny copyright of the letter at the eleventh hour?
I never understood this. What were they going to testify about? What did bullying claims have to do with the lawsuit?
The palace 4 were supposed to testify that they helped draft the electronic version of Meghan’s letter. The whole defence of the daily mail was based around that electronic version which was handed over to them by Jason who said that he and 3 other staff members had helped draft the electronic version hence its copyright wasn’t owned only by Meghan, but by the Crown as well. Needless to say that the other 3 never came forward and Jason backpaddled at the beginning of April.
I feel like this story could serve multiple purposes.
– as he was a (former) palace aide, it could make the RF look good. Reporters can then say “see the palace tries to help meghan”
– it can possibly sow seeds of doubt in the fairness of the outcome of the lawsuit.
– the dm readers and trolls can set their sight on knauff now, while it protects the royal family.
Nailed it Cecilia. If he actually wanted to help when claims of him being a co author was reported in November & when the Fail’s lawyers were contacting him then- he could have set the record straight then. The copyright part would have been wrapped up (bar any appeal) as the Fail wouldn’t have any defence. He’s only set things straight now so he doesn’t perjure himself.
Reporting it this way is so the Fail can set trolls on him as they are pissed & know anyone seen as helping Meghan would get trolled. Also way of trolling Meghan’s claims of being unprotected by the palace & suggesting the palace have helped deprive the people of justice Burrell style when actually the facts didn’t support the Fail’s case. The Fail never expected they would be challenged when they published Meghan’s letter & that’s why they brazenly broke the law.
They’re framing his lying and ghosting them when pleaded to provide proof on the record as helping meghan? Well they aren’t exactly wrong. But LOL. I know they’re so pissed.
Imagine having to go through life from now onward with the labels of liar, backstabber, shit-stirrer, gossipmonger attached to you. You might have worked for the BRF but none of the other Royal houses or Uber rich is going to want to touch that polished turd from now on. His name is mud and rightly so. His blowback is just starting and he deserves every bit of it.
I wish I agreed. But some clues tell me he is already being set up well. He knows where all the bodies are buried and probably got a deal for his silence on other royal matters. He stays in place until the end of the year, giving him plenty of time to make ‘arrangements’. He is connected, ambitious, and mean. In this day and age? We will hear from him again, unfortunately.
And racist. Don’t forget that what he did was moved by racist and sexism so he will carry this label forever
If he were looking to be helpful, why didn’t the “lynchpin” settle the issue earlier and save solicitor fees for Meghan?
Jason was the source of Meghan’s tabloid bullying, he was the liason with both the tabloids and her father. Now he’s her “savior” because he finally told the truth to the lie he himself created?
Smells like someone shat the bed and is trying to pretend the room doesn’t stink. Is KP trying to save face here? The tabloids?
Plain and simple: this man was afraid of committing perjury. It’s one thing to smear someone in the backrooms of the palace, and leak to the press. It’s another thing to take the stand and lie.
Omid Scobie said it best: https://twitter.com/scobie/status/1392617117300707334
Yeah, they don’t pay him enough to go to jail cause schillings would’ve pounced on him if he had lied.
When Omid decides to burn all his bridges, I want him to write a tell-all book about all the f*ckery he has seen covering the royals. not just about the royals, but about the courtiers and the other reporters.
I don’t think he had seen that much fuckery until meghan came along. It seems like as soon as it was known that harry and meghan were serious they choose a side and all shared the opinion that she needed to be knocked down a peg or 2 despite her not doing anything wrong. And anyone that either choose her side or was fair got a part of that as well
Knauf is the reason the lawsuit went south for the Fail. And the Firm to make this go away. And for the death warrant going out on Bad Dad’s character.
Jason is a coward who is a racist and bully I believe he and William work together to get rid of Meghan at any cost . I believe Jason helped the daily mail and when it came for Jason to stand by the daily mail and say he co letter he back off because he didn’t wanted to perjury himself . Jason was just the scapegoat since he been in the news the most he was sacrificed to continue to protect William and Kate since we all know they were the original leakers . This whole spin about how Jason helped Meghan is just ridiculously it’s clearly the daily mail is bitter that they lose big time and they have to pay Meghan and apologize to her on the front page they got played big time .
“Giving Knauf credit for telling the truth at the eleventh hour, as if he was doing Meghan some kind of favor, isn’t sitting well with me.”
Exactly what I wanted to say. I’m not going to give “Poor Jason” credit for telling the truth right at the end. He could have washed his hands of the case last year and refused to.
What’s really sad is that if Meghan even showed the letter to Knauf, at some point, she must have some basic trust in him.
That’s a really good point. I wonder exactly when the wheels started turning for Meghan and Harry that Jason was actively working against them and not supporting. There must have been some trust at some point? How horrifying to realize this and then look back and connect the dots.
When presented by professional Meghan-haters the Fail to their audience of craven royalists, a headline declaring that Knauf helped Meghan win (i.e. is the reason the Fail lost) is essentially throwing him to the wolves. The snippet included here further blames him when it says that the judge threw out Meghan’s claim that the newspaper had acted dishonestly, in other words saying that the newspaper believed Knauf and Knauf was the liar. This is another reason why the crisis managers axed him immediately – the cambridges want the same plausible deniability that the Fail is claiming here; the palace is trying to put the entire onus on knauf for lying about the letter, same as the Fail, and they’re hoping that their actions convince the Fail that the cambridges believed the lie just as much as they did, so that the Fail doesn’t go after the cambridges for retribution of this loss. Whether the Fail plays nice with KP or not, Knauf loses big time. Good.
Who is the “senior member of the royal household” who made the claim about the letter? I don’t think dipshit Jason would have the balls to go to the Mail of his own free will. Somebody sent him on an errand, that is the person who is still beholden to the press. The Cambridges can try and say “But Jason!” all they want but someone is still in danger imo.
I think it was Jason (at William’s request) and that’s one of the big reasons he’s gone – KP is worried that the MoS is going to name him and they want their hands clean. At least that’s part of my new working theory.
Ah, I see, he was playing the long, long game! Sure!
Step one: Pretend that you “coauthored” a personal letter that you may have leaked to the media so you can claim copyright on it
Step two: Cooperate with the Daily Mail in their case against Meghan and have them build a multimillion case around your word.
Step three: Be a lying, unreliable jerk with an obvious grudge against your former boss who might either perjure himself on the stand or be forced to reveal information about the inner workings of the palace and their dealings with the media. Be such an embarrassment that the case gets settled in Meghan’s favour.
Step four: claim that you were a double agent helping Meghan all along
Step five: Profit?
This spin would be hilarious if it wasn’t so desperate. My question – will his association with this case hurt him? If you were Jason’s future boss or colleague, would you collaborate with him? Would you trust him not to sell you out?
Love the South Park gnome reference!
@Jay “Step four: claim that you were a double agent helping Meghan all along.”
That seems to be what the DM is trying to insinuate in their headline. Whatever they do it will be to somehow disassociate William & Kate’s long and nefarious relationship with Knauf in the pursuit to smear Meghan.
Wonder how they’ll be handling Wootton in the future.
Holding Jason up as some upstanding aide, who helped her win the case, is just a smokescreen to protect Willileaks and KP.
Have we referenced any of this against Wooten’s creepy threat letter?
Knauf getting a taste of his own medicine, yes?
Ugh. I hope The Daily Fail stretched before this reach.
God, he looks so much like Scott Disick, in that photo. That is actually an apt comparison.
Praising Jason for helping Meghan is like praising the arsonist who put out his own fire.
Jason Knauf was a double agent. He’s a traitor. Good he didn’t get away with it this time around. Meghan wins !
So it also came out in the court docs filed Wednesday that somehow the MOS’ lawyers accidentally ccd Meghan’s lawyers on some emails sent tp Knauf late last year. In the emails the MOS’ lawyers admit that thwy left Jason multiple voicemails in Nov begging for evidence that he did not return and that they were desperate after Meghan had filed for a summary judgment. Justice Wharby was furious and made them pay 100% of Meghan’s legal coats instead of ths 90% he dictated before.
Im going to make a wild theory here that Meghan’s lawyers made Knauf and BP aware of this before last week’s hearing and that was the reaaon for the definitive statements saying they weren’t trying to claim copyright because itd be a problem if she revealed in court docs proof that he couldn’t provide evidence yet allowed his name to spread around as part of the MOS defense or worse purjured himself if he tried to give false testimony though i feel the goal was not for him to end up on the stand. It was for her to get scared and back down. Im just curious as to who it was who offered Jason up to the MOS last October because if it was KP then why was he avoiding the MOS’ calls just a month later?
MOS should sue jason for lying for the same value that they have to pay to meghan.
Dont worry if jason cant pay because willie will ask granny to pay for him.
Do people realise Jason K and Dan W went to Victoria University together in Wellington, NZ? Wellington is a very small place and everyone knows everyone…