Peter Thiel’s Lawyer Goes After Gawker For Investigation Into Trump’s ‘Weave’

Donald Trump's hair is swept aside by the wind, but stays stuck to his head. Donald Trump at Trump Turnberry Golf Course & Resort, Ayrshire, Scotland, Britain - 02 Jul 2014 Funny-haired US businessman Donald Trump ... Donald Trump's hair is swept aside by the wind, but stays stuck to his head. Donald Trump at Trump Turnberry Golf Course & Resort, Ayrshire, Scotland, Britain - 02 Jul 2014 Funny-haired US businessman Donald Trump was at his newly purchased Turnberry Golf Course and Resort Scottish links golf course with ever-doting Eastern European wife Melania Trump. Renamed Trump Turnberry, it brings the number of golf courses owned by the property magnate to 17. The businessman has already pledged GBP 100 million to renovate the hotel that overlooks the Turnberry course, which he bought last month, and he will discuss more developments during a visit to Ayrshire today. It is Mr Trump's second Scottish course, following on from his Aberdeenshire resort which opened in July 2012. Plans for a second golf course, club house and hotel on the same site remain on hold amid a bitter dispute over a proposed wind farm adjacent to the resort, involving Alex Salmond, the BBC and local protesters. (Rex Features via AP Images) MORE LESS
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Gawker Media is facing yet another legal threat, this time for publishing an investigation into Donald Trump’s infamous golden locks.

Attorney Charles Harder on Wednesday sent a letter to the news site on behalf of a hair treatment clinic charging that Gawker reporter Ashley Feinberg made “false and defamatory” statements in her piece, headlined “Is Donald Trump’s Hair a $60,000 Weave? A Gawker Investigation. “

Harder was behind wrestler Hulk Hogan’s successful defamation lawsuit against Gawker for publishing Hogan’s sex tape. The $140 million the company was ordered to pay Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, eventually pushed the media company to declare bankruptcy and put itself up for sale. That suit and others were funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel.

It is unclear what, if any, involvement Thiel had in this latest legal threat. The billionaire investor is a Trump supporter who will attend the Republican National Convention as a pledged delegate on Trump’s behalf.

According to Gawker’s J.K. Trotter, Harder’s letter requested that Gawker immediately remove the story on Trump’s hair and issue a public apology. It also threatened legal action on behalf of the hair clinic, Ivari International, and its owner, Edward Ivari, who accused Gawker of invasion of privacy, intentionally inflicting emotional distress and interfering with the company’s business relations.

The letter, which Harder reportedly asked not be made public, said that Gawker’s actions exposed the company “to substantial monetary damages and punitive damages.”

Gawker’s investigation was kicked off by a tipster who claimed to know about Trump’s hair and said he relied on “microcylinder intervention,” an unusual treatment that cost tens of thousands of dollars for installation and maintenance. Feinberg found that the only company that uses this treatment is Ivari International, a clinic whose New York office was once located on the Trump Tower private floor reserved for Trump’s own office.

Trump has long claimed that his hair is his own.

Gawker president and general counsel Heather Dietrick wrote in the company’s response to Harder that Ivari’s insistence the article be take down was “vastly overbroad,” given that he played a bit part in an article “about Donald Trump.”

Dietrick denied that any of the claims made in the story were libelous, noting that Harder took “no issue with the central thesis of the piece—that Mr. Ivari has worked on Donald Trump’s hair.”

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Notable Replies

  1. WHAT is on his head in this picture? Is this a real photo? The raccoon looks like a squirrel here.

  2. So now Peter Thiel is just being a dick? Trolling for ‘stories’ that stoke his outrage against Gawker? I can think of many charities that need your money MORE Thiel.

  3. Harder took “no issue with the central thesis of the piece—that Mr. Ivari has worked on Donald Trump’s hair.” Ivari is a taxidermist?

  4. Had I known things were going to work out like this, I would’ve studied to become a political cartoonist. sigh…

  5. Imagine Trump’s Department of Homeland Security going after anyone who denigrates his features. This is not snark. Thankfully, he’ll never be in that position.

    Probably.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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