A United States probate commissioner has ruled against billionaire media baron Rupert Murdoch‘s bid to change his family trust to put his global television and publishing empire under the control of his eldest son Lachlan, The New York Times has reported.

Nevada commissioner Edmund Gorman concluded that Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who run Fox Corp and News Corp, the owners of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, had acted in “bad faith” in their effort to amend the irrevocable trust, the Times reported on Monday, citing a sealed court document.

The trust currently would divide control of the company equally among Murdoch’s four oldest children – Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence – after his death.

In his opinion, Gorman said the plan to change the trust was a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust, the Times said.

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A lawyer for Rupert Murdoch, Adam Streisand, said they were disappointed with the ruling and intended to appeal, the Times reported.

The Murdochs’ conservative media empire is poised to play an important role in the political future of the US as President-elect Donald Trump is set to return to the White House in January.

Fox News has bounced back after losing an $800m defamation lawsuit last year due to its handling of the 2020 election results.

Rupert Murdoch was one of the most prominent Trump detractors to line up behind the former president during the recent election campaign, with the full-throated support of Fox News.

Rupert Murdoch, centre, and his wife, Elena Zhukova Murdoch, arrive at the Second Judicial District Court in Reno, Nevada, on Monday, September 16 [Andy Barron/AP Photo]

The succession battle for control of Murdoch’s media holdings has been going on behind closed doors for three months in a Reno, Nevada, courtroom.

Married five times, the 93-year-old Murdoch retired last year and is attempting to change the terms of the family’s trust to ensure that after he dies, the media companies remain under the control of Lachlan Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch’s proposed amendment would block any interference by three of Lachlan’s siblings, who are more politically moderate, The New York Times has reported.

Lachlan Murdoch already runs Fox and is the sole chair of News Corp.

Lachlan Murdoch is viewed as ideologically aligned with his conservative father. James Murdoch, who has donated to progressive political groups, resigned in 2020 from the News Corp board, citing disagreements over editorial content.

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The Murdoch trust was formed around the time of Rupert Murdoch’s divorce from his second wife, Anna, in 1999. The trust is the vehicle through which the elder Murdoch controls News Corp and Fox, with roughly a 40 percent stake in voting shares of each company.