Wrestling Promoter Michael Avenatti Threatens to Sue Daily Caller Reporter Over Defamation, But Fails to Cite Any Specific Reportage He Claims Is False

Excuse the headline -- but Avenatti does not seem to me to be acting as a lawyer. He seems to be acting as a Hype Man/Gorgeous Ladies of Pornography (GLOP) manager trying to gin up interest in a match.

Avenatti didn't just threaten the DC with suit over unspecified, ambiguous "defamations;" he further claimed that his threatening email was "off the record," but that's not how it works: A subject can request that a statement be off the record, and if the reporter agrees, he can make his statement, and then the reporter is ethically (though not legally) required to keep it off the record.

But you can't just say "off the record" and treat that as biding. It's a contract that has to be agreed to. You can't just "call it" like "Shotgun!"

Here's the article that Michael Avenatti seemed to be so terribly upset by. I hope I am not risking suit by quoting from it, and wondering (as Avenatti did not see fit to specify) which of the statements contained therein are untrue.

Avenatti's past is littered with lawsuits, jilted business partners and bankruptcy filings. People who have worked with the lawyer described him to TheDCNF as ruthless, greedy and unbothered by ethical questions.

Dillanos Coffee CEO David Morris claimed last Tuesday that Avenatti never paid him for over $160,000 worth of coffee that Dillanos supplied to Avenatti’s company. "So @StormyDaniels hot shot lawyer Michael owes my small company @Dillanos $160,179 for coffee," Morris wrote on Twitter. "He talks a big talk about integrity. We trusted him."

...

The Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday interviewed Avenatti over the phone on several topics including Morris’s accusations, which Avenatti denied. "I don't owe Dillanos coffee anything. I personally don't owe them anything," he said. "So that's nonsense."

But just three hours later, Morris announced that he had deleted his original tweet after working out "an arrangement" with Avenatti.

I don't know why Avenatti said he didn't personally owe this guy anything. I could guess that he is distinguishing between his personal debts and a debt that corporation he was a central participant in might have accrued, but that would be a guess.

The new "arrangement," however, seems to be with Avenatti personally:

A spokesperson for Dillanos told TheDCNF that Dillanos' new agreement was with Avenatti personally but declined to disclose any details of the arrangement. Avenatti declined to comment on the reported agreement.

The rest of the Daily Caller is filled with similar "defamations," if by defamations you mean "reporters reporting what interview subjects say about a newsworthy public figure."

Given that Avenatti is in a Sol Rosenberg kind of "I'll sue you and the people you work with" kind of mood, he might also consider dropping a threatening letter on the Seattle Times, which reports someone filing a bar complaint against him for an alleged "pump and dump" scheme.

Note that the Daily Caller also mentioned that allegation.

That's not what most people and certainly most lawyers mean by "defamations," but who knows what Wrestlemania Legend Michael "The Machine" Avenatti thinks "defamation" means.

Oh, and if he really wants to get busy with the threatening letters, he should check out the claims tax attorney Robert Barnes is making on Twitter, complied at the end of this Daily Wire article.

Now, I know what you're all thinking: Given that the media shrieks every single day that Trump is threatening the First Amendment by merely criticizing them and saying "Fake News," surely they must be rushing to the Daily Caller's defense now that one of their frequent guests -- guests? the guy's in their studios so much it seems he's pretty much one of their colleagues -- is threatening fellow reporters with a lawsuit over unspecified "defamations."

Yeah I'm sure Jake Tapper and #JakesRepublicanHarem will be getting right on that, post-haste.

Oh, and the Daily Beast reports that a fellow pornographic actress, Tasha Reign (note: I suspect this might not be her original legal name) accuses Stormy Daniels of having been informed about a sexual assault on her at one of the movies Daniels was directing, but then taking no action about it.

#SheToo?

Reign says she has a "horrible story" to tell me about herself and Daniels.

"I was sexually assaulted by one of her crewmembers. He groped and grabbed me from behind," she says, wiping away tears. "I spoke up immediately because I was in the moment, and I was so proud of myself. She was the director that day, I went straight to her and straight to the man that did it, we had a conversation about it, I went to the owner of Wicked Pictures, I did all the right things. And she did not handle the situation appropriately, respectfully or professionally. So it's a little bit outrageous when I hear her say things about how she is standing up for women and wants to be a voice for other women to be able to come forward when I was assaulted on her set and she didn’t give me any care or attention, and didn't even send that man home."

According to Reign, the alleged incident in question occurred on November 15 of last year during the filming of The Set Up, an adult movie directed by Daniels and produced under the Wicked Pictures banner.

Go to the article to see the details of the alleged assault.

Reign's co-star corroborates part of her story -- about Reign being emotionally shaken up immediately after she claims she was molested.

...

The on-set assault allegation first surfaced on January 14, when Reign tweeted at Daniels, "I was innapropriately groped and sexually harassed by one of the men on your crew November 15th right before my BG scene. Which you were then made aware of that day. You continued to allow him to stay on the set with no reprocussion [sic]. I never questioned your directorial skills." Daniels then fired back: "You were not. I was right there...as were several other people and NONE of them will agree with you. How dare you try to undo 15 years of my reputation and his career. I will not allow it. Find me one person who will state otherwise. Best wishes."

Presented with the allegation, Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, issued the following statement to The Daily Beast on behalf of his client: "Ms. Daniels' recollection of what happened is vastly different. Further, after the incident in question, Wicked performed a thorough investigation and found no substantiation for the allegations. It simply did not occur as Ms. Reign suggests."

Wasn't "my recollection differs" a standard bit of boilerplate vague semidenial we heard from a lot of men accused in the #MeToo tornado?

posted by Ace of Spades at 08:33 PM

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