Anthony Scaramucci threatens to sue student newspaper over an opinion piece

Tufts University has postponed an event until matters are resolved

Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci threatened to sue Tufts University over a student's opinion piece, causing them to postpone an event. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Tufts University has postponed an event with former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci after he threatened a lawsuit over an opinion piece published in the student newspaper.

The former Wall Street executive and Tufts alumnus was scheduled to speak at the university's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, but a university spokesman told The Boston Globe the event would be delayed until "legal matters" are resolved.

In a 21 November letter, Mr Scaramucci's lawyer said he would take legal action unless the newspaper retracted "false and defamatory allegations of fact" in an opinion piece calling for his removal from an advisory board at the school. Mr Scaramucci said that he had asked for an apology and a correction.

Graduate student Camilo Caballero wrote two opinion pieces for the Tufts Daily school newspaper. In one, he wrote about Mr Scaramucci as a man "who is irresponsible, inconsistent, an unethical opportunist and who exuded the highest degree of disreputability should not be on the Fletcher Board."

The piece also criticized a poll posted by The Scaramucci Post, the former Trump advisor’s media company, which asked users how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust, as "giving comfort to Holocaust deniers."

Mr Scaramucci has said the poll was posted without his permission. He noted that a Jewish friend conceived of the idea to highlight the public's ignorance of the Second World War event.

Speaking about the apparent threat of legal action, Mr Caballero said Mr Scaramucci is trying to prevent him from using his First Amendment rights.

"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." Mr Caballero said.

Mr Scaramucci said he had been looking forward to responding to the faculty and student concerns as well as a petition calling for his expulsion from the board.

"I'm shocked that a university that I love and have been a part of for 35 years is silencing that debate because of my request for an apology," he said.

Mr Scaramucci left the White House just 10 days after a press conference introducing him, during which he said he “loves” President Donald Trump several times. He had no direct communications experience prior to his appointment.

The move came after the departure of former Press Secretary and Communications Director Sean Spicer.

Mr Scaramucci was once a supporter of his law school classmate Barack Obama and has in the past donated to several prominent New York Democrats.

Agencies contributed to this report.