The attorney for the porn star suing President Donald Trump sent an email Monday threatening to sue reporters who wrote a negative story about him.
On Sunday, Daily Caller News Foundation reporters Peter Hasson and Joe Simonson wrote a story on the "questionable history" of Stormy Daniels attorney and cable news mainstay Michael Avenatti. They reported that Avenatti's former associates described him as "ruthless, greedy and unbothered by ethical questions."
Hasson and Simonson reported on publicly available information about Avenatti, citing amongst other incidents a lawsuit from actor Patrick Dempsey that was filed only weeks into their business partnership, and an incident when former coffee supplier David Morris tweeted about how Avenatti stiffed him for a whopping $160,000.
"He talks a big talk about integrity," Morris said in a now-deleted tweet. "We trusted him."
Avenatti was apparently not happy with the story, sending an email to Hasson threatening to sue him and the Daily Caller for defamation. The lawyer began the email with "off the record," but as Hasson did not agree to those terms, the reporter posted the email to Twitter for all to see.
Note: @MichaelAvenatti tried to call this off record, which of course aren't terms I agreed to since it was an uninvited email pic.twitter.com/Ve6Guftwqq
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) May 14, 2018
"If you and your colleagues do not stop with the hit pieces that are full of lies and defamatory statements, I will have no choice but to sue each of you and your publication for defamation," Avenatti wrote. "During that process, we will expose your publication for what it truly is."
Avenatti even promised to go after the reporters personally. "So if I were you, I would tell Mr. Trump to find someone else to fabricate things about me," he continued. "If you think I'm kidding, you really don't know anything about me."