Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti threatens to sue 'Daily Caller' reporters

William Cummings | USA TODAY

Adult film star Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti threatened Monday to sue The Daily Caller and its reporters individually for defamation, according to an email published by one of the conservative news site's reporters.

"@MichaelAvenatti sent me an email this morning threatening to sue me and my colleagues for reporting on him," said Daily Caller reporter Peter J. Hasson in a tweet Monday morning.

Hasson noted that Avenatti asked the email be off the record, but Hasson never agreed to any terms since it was an "uninvited email."

"Let me be clear. 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," reads the email purportedly from Avenatti. "During that process, we will expose your publication for what it truly is. We will also recover significant damages against each of you that participated personally."

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The attorney said the publication had gone after him at President Trump's behest and told Hasson, "If I were you, I would tell Mr. Trump to find someone else to fabricate things about me."

"If you think I'm kidding, you really don't know anything about me," Avenatti said. "This is the last warning."

.@MichaelAvenatti sent me an email this morning threatening to sue me and my colleagues for reporting on him — Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) May 14, 2018

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

Although Avenatti does not specify which stories from the Daily Caller he believes are defamatory, the site notes it recently published a story on his "questionable history," which the article asserts "is littered with lawsuits, jilted business partners and bankruptcy filings."

Avenatti's threats were not well-received by journalists, including FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver who said, "Avenatti seems quite Trumpian in both loving the media attention and acting quite contemptuously toward the free press."

I'm sure I'm not the first person to observe this, but Avenatti seems quite Trumpian in both loving media attention and acting quite contemptuously toward the free press. https://t.co/yXQHkQlbfR — Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) May 14, 2018

"Not good," tweeted CNN's Chris Cillizza in response to Hasson's tweet.

"You can't say off the record and expect the reporter to abide by it if they didn't agree beforehand," tweeted CNN's Andrew Kaczynski. "Also what evidence does Avenatti have the Daily Caller story was provided by Trump as he asserts here?

You can’t say off the record and expect the reporter to abide by it if they didn’t agree beforehand. Also what evidence does Avenatti have the Daily Caller story was provided by Trump as he asserts here?https://t.co/tDLgWw3Hk8 — andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) May 14, 2018

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