THE WASHINGTON POST: US Commissioner sensationally rejects Rupert Murdoch’s effort to change family trust

Rupert Murdoch has faced a setback in his bid to cement his son Lachlan’s future control of his media empire, after a Nevada probate commissioner rejected his bid to change his family’s trust.

Murdoch, 93, initiated the effort to change the terms of the trust last year to preserve the conservative orientation of his sprawling media empire. As first reported by the New York Times this summer, the elder Murdoch was concerned that a “lack of consensus” among his three other older children would have financial consequences for the company.

But probate commissioner Edmund “Joe” Gorman Jr ruled against the effort, deeming it a “carefully crafted charade,” the New York Times reported on Monday afternoon. The case will now move to a district judge who could choose to affirm the recommendation, deny it or send it back for additional inquiry.

Messages seeking comment from the elder Murdoch’s representatives and lawyer in the case were not returned.

“We welcome Commissioner Gorman’s decision and hope we can move beyond this litigation to focus on strengthening and rebuilding relationships among all family members,” a spokesperson representing Prudence, Elisabeth and James Murdoch told The Washington Post in a statement.

The three siblings strongly objected to their father’s effort, which set off the current legal battle. The trust had been set up as part of divorce proceedings between Murdoch and his second wife, the former Anna Murdoch Mann.

Lachlan is ideologically aligned with his father and would be expected to continue the editorial positioning that has made the company successful. There was concern that his three siblings could choose to reorient the company in a more moderate direction after their father’s passing.

James, in particular, has become a vocal supporter of liberal causes since he formally exited his father’s media company in 2020, citing “disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.” But the three other siblings have not publicly expressed any desire to replace Lachlan or to change the company’s editorial direction.

Lachlan, 53, who has flitted in and out of the Murdoch media fold, became his father’s most likely successor after he was named chairman and CEO of the Fox Corporation in 2019. His grasp on that position only tightened after his father announced last fall that he would step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp, which includes the company’s newspaper and publishing portfolio.

Lachlan was the only one of the patriarch’s four older children who attended their father’s fifth wedding in June to retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova, a sign of the deep-seated family tensions at play.

The drama in Nevada was almost entirely hidden from the public and the media by dint of the commissioner, who determined that the trust battle was a private matter, rejecting efforts by a coalition of media companies - including The Washington Post - to open up the case. Sealed hearings in the case were held in September. While no decisions in the case have been made public, the online docket now shows the status of the case to be “pending inactive.”

The elder Murdoch has been backed in his legal efforts by William P Barr, who served as attorney general during Donald Trump’s first presidential term.

Previous attempts at a settlement that would have resolved the dispute without a court case were unsuccessful, though they could continue.

Murdoch’s company is still facing a host of legal challenges, including a defamation lawsuit filed by voting technology company Smartmatic and shareholder lawsuits alleging that Fox executives were deficient in preventing defamatory content from airing on the network.