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Martin Shkreli: Sorry, not sorry for trolling journalist

Martin Shkreli makes no apologies for “needling” Lauren Duca.

The pharma bad boy — dubbed the “most hated man in America” for jacking up the price of a potentially life-saving drug by 5,000 percent — added to his growing list of reviled hijinks on Sunday when he was banned from Twitter for allegedly harassing Duca, a Teen Vogue contributing editor who recently wrote a critical op-ed of the President-elect.

But it was Duca’s contentious appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show that really set Shkreli off, prompting him to change his Twitter profile picture to an edited image of Duca sitting on his lap. He also created a collage of Duca’s photos and set it atop his now-suspended profile, emblazoned with the words: “For better or worse, ‘til death do us part, I love you with every single beat of my heart.”





Duca then tweeted the profile changes on Jan. 8 to Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, sparking Shkreli’s suspension for harassment.

Three days earlier, Duca tweeted a screenshot of Shkreli asking her to be his plus-one to Trump’s inauguration. “I’d rather eat my own organs,” she replied.

During an exclusive interview at his apartment in Manhattan — one he shares with Trashy, a rescue cat from Philadelphia — Shkreli downplayed the controversy, saying he took publicly available photos and created a collage “more reminiscent of a high school locker” than online harassment.

‘To her, I’d say get off your high horse.’

“I look back on it as a waste of time, no doubt,” Shkreli told The Post. “I think it would help her to be a little more intelligent and a little less dramatic. She said she prizes rational discourse, but when I messaged her with an invitation, she did the exact opposite of rational discourse.”





The invitation was facetious, just an “ironic joke,” Shkreli said, one from a Trump supporter who fell in love with Duca’s “brilliant” performance on Carlson’s show, which culminated with the host suggesting Duca “stick to the thigh-high boots.” A stunned Duca mouthed as the camera cut away: “You’re a sexist pig.”

Shkreli said he took particular issue with Duca’s defense of Ivanka Trump being harassed on a JetBlue flight, referring to her tweet not to “let [Trump] off the hook because she looks like she smells good,” which Carlson showed during the 11-minute segment.

Shkreli admits he didn’t expect to get booted from Twitter for “needling” Duca, whom he actually met briefly for the first time in August during something of a meet-and-greet with reporters at Guy Fieri’s restaurant in Times Square.





“She walked in, kind of did a quick tour, and then left,” Shkreli said, adding that it wasn’t a well-attended affair but was chronicled by Complex and other outlets.

Shkreli — who claims to be a “pretty progressive guy,” not some “chauvinist maniac” — said he considers Duca among the young, partisan “super liberal” reporters in New York employed at outlets like Mashable, Buzzfeed or Gizmodo.

“That persona bothers me for some reason,” he said. “I’m not saying I can’t sleep at night because of it or something — it’s a very modest, small bothering — but it’s easy to generalize this group as pretty unidimensional. I paint them with one brush and Lauren is part of that group.”

Duca declined comment when reached by The Post.





“I’ve said everything I have to say about him at this point,” Duca replied.

Duca detailed Shkreli’s “high-profile trolling” in Teen Vogue on Tuesday, saying she’s received death and rape threats in recent weeks, some on Christmas Day. She said it’s been a tiring and infuriating month, one that had her questioning her faith in humanity. Still, she promised to carry on, not to be stifled by the “scope of harassment” she’s endured.

“I’ll still be @laurenduca on Twitter until neo-Nazis usher in the inevitable apocalypse,” Duca wrote. “Bet on it.”

Shkreli, 33, insists what he did was a product of “growing up on the internet,” a forum where harassment, trolling and needling are part of the deal, where the separation of cables and wires and physical space allows people to say things they usually wouldn’t dare.

“To her, I’d say get off your high horse,” Shkreli told The Post. “You’re not a political genius and I’m not sure why you think you have a lot to add to every political conversation … She’s a speak-first, think-later person and that’s what bothers me about her. That’s why I needled her, that’s why I trolled her – because she is what I believe is a scourge. She does it for publicity … but she has no substance and Tucker sort of exposed her I think a little bit in that regard.”

As for his droves of critics, Shkreli suggested they “think hard” about what they saw atop his profile and ask where that fits within the spectrum of online harassment. At no point did he apologize for his actions.

“I’d encourage them to think hard about what they saw and ask themselves if they’ve seen worse things on the internet and put themselves through my shoes, and how much needling and harassment I get,” Shkreli said. “And really spend some time thinking if I said any bad words, if I wished any harm on her, if I did anything but be sort of nice. She said she’d rather eat her own organs than go to an event with me.”

But Duca’s company won’t be needed in Washington after all. Shkreli said he’s found a date: a 20-year-old nursing student named Elizabeth from Westchester County whom he’s been seeing for around six months. She’s smart, beautiful and “very right-wing,” he said.

A Brooklyn judge on Wednesday approved Shkreli’s travel to Washington next week for the festivities, but Shkreli acknowledged to The Post that he doesn’t have a ticket to the inauguration. Nevertheless, he plans to attend several satellite events and parties, including one hosted by Carlson.

“When it comes to the main event, I want to be careful,” Shkreli said. “I don’t want to bring any bad attention to the president, but we’ll have to see.”

A message seeking comment from Trump’s camp regarding Shkreli was not returned on Thursday.

Shkreli remains free on $5 million bail following his arrest in 2015 for allegedly running an $11 million securities fraud scheme an FBI official likened to a “trifecta of lies, deceit and greed.” Conditions of his release include asking for permission to travel outside of New York.

John Marzulli, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, said Shkreli faces a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted in the seven-count indictment. The trial is scheduled to begin on June 26.

Benjamin Brafman, one of New York’s highest profile defense attorneys whose past clients include Sean Combs and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is representing Shkreli, who said he expects nothing short of the “trial of the decade” this summer.

Whether he’ll take the stand will ultimately be “Ben’s choice,” Shkreli said, but if he does, Brafman thinks he’ll win over jurors.

“Martin is determined to proceed to trial and is very confident that he will be exonerated,” Brafman told The Post in a statement. “The decision of whether any of my clients testify at trial is a decision I never make in advance but if Martin did testify, I think the jury would find him brilliant, personable and very honest.”

With his freedom on the line, Shkreli insists he’s not worried — even if he’s convicted.

“I talked to two guys that just came back from stints … you know, I hope you’ll see I’m one of the most sanguine people you’ll ever meet, I kind of think it would be exciting, you know, to spend six months or a year in prison,” Shkreli told The Post.

“I think it would be an adventure to tell your kids about, it’d be something that very few people get to do … I would not want to go to Rikers Island or Sing Sing, where I’d be fearing for my life every day. That would not be appealing in any way, shape or form. Those places are hell on Earth. The federal prison camp system is, you know, Martha Stewart called it reminiscent of Yale. Of course I don’t want to go, but I don’t view it as a terrible thing. If I had to go for three years, I would view it as a terrible thing.”





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