Since his glorious 10-day run as the White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci has stayed busy, starting a centrist blog and also posting a strange Holocaust poll.
Now, it sounds like he’s willing to spend some time in court suing the student paper from his alma mater.
According to the Boston Globe, Scaramucci has threatened to sue the Tufts Daily newspaper and graduate student Camilo Caballero for “false and defamatory allegations of fact” after the paper published an editorial from Caballero on Nov. 6 that said he is a “man who is irresponsible, inconsistent, an unethical opportunist and who exuded the highest degree of disreputability …” He also wrote that Scaramucci had “sold his soul in contradiction to his own purported beliefs” to take his White House job.
Caballero published another editorial on Nov. 13 in which he wrote that the school’s invitation to Scaramucci to speak “is a way to give Scaramucci a platform to legitimize his unethical behavior.”
Scaramucci’s lawyer said he would not pursue litigation if the paper issued a retraction and made a public apology.
As a result, the university postponed an event Monday that Scaramucci was supposed to attend. Scaramucci sits on the law school’s advisory board and he had been invited to participate in a Monday event where he could speak with students about their political views. But Caballero’s op-ed apparently stung.
“So either back it up or you will hear from my lawyer,” Scaramucci wrote to Caballero on Nov. 16. “You may have a difference of opinion from me politically which I respect but you can’t make spurious claims about my reputation and integrity.” In his letter, Scaramucci’s attorney called the statements about his ethics to be “false facts.”
Earlier this month, an online petition that demanded Scaramucci be removed from the advisory board received 240 signatures. That petition was created after the Scaramucci Post, his media venture, tweeted a poll asking how many Jews had been killed in the Holocaust.
https://twitter.com/ScaramucciPost/status/920274523324329985
“He is someone that uses his money to gain power and his wealth to buy himself into things that will get him attention. And he uses this power as a scare tactic . . . to get people to not exercise their First Amendment rights,” the 26-year-old Caballero told the Globe. “He’s trying to stop me from exercising my First Amendment right, and that’s plain wrong.”
On Sunday night and Monday morning, Scaramucci defended himself on Twitter.
Daniel I was ready to come to the school, that’s an open debate. Nobody is going to call my ethics into question without a fight. An apology will suffice. https://t.co/XWx0Q8XP6r
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) November 27, 2017
I asked for an apology for defamatory statements. That is a teachable moment professor. The student is an adult, let his actions stand without any coddling. You can’t defame people in America because you don’t like their political views. https://t.co/q5fi8wszqn
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) November 27, 2017
That is what I did. All I need is an apology and correction. Get the facts right. Defamation is not unflattering coverage. It’s defamation. https://t.co/EKLLAecTKh
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) November 27, 2017
This is a dishonest tweet. I asked for an apology. Plain and simple. In our country defamation comes with its consequences. https://t.co/Cs64CtrV86
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) November 27, 2017
The person who initially created the online petition said the lawsuit threat wasn’t a good look for Scaramucci.
“It doesn’t reflect very well on him that he would target a graduate student who was simply expressing his views,” Carter Banker told the Globe. “Especially since Mr. Scaramucci is no stranger to bad press.”
H/T New York
