• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, November 28, 2017

Even a brief stint as communications director for President Donald Trump can earn you a lifetime of notoriety, as investment banker and Wall Street salesman Anthony Scaramucci learned after his week as communications boss at the White House.

Like a number of his political peers, Scaramucci is turning to the favored new tactic of legal threats to shut down press criticism — even when it’s coming from the student newspaper of his alma mater.

“The Mooch,” as he is jocularly known, has taken issue with two unfavorable opinion pieces, published on November 6 and 13 in the editorial section of The Tufts Daily, the student newspaper of Tufts University, from which Scaramucci graduated in 1986 with a degree in economics. He later attended Harvard Law School.

According to The Tufts Daily’s report, Scaramucci has threatened to sue both the newspaper and the Tufts graduate student who wrote the op-eds, Camilo A. Caballero, for defamation. He cites damaging and allegedly baseless statements made in the pieces, including assertions that disparaged his character and actions.

In the op-eds, which are still available online, Caballero asserted that Scaramucci, who currently serves on the advisory board for Tufts University’s Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy, had engaged in “unethical behavior,” and called for his removal from the Tufts board.

Caballero also criticized the school’s administration for disregarding a petition requesting Scaramucci’s removal.

Among other things, Caballero wrote: “A man who is irresponsible, inconsistent, an unethical opportunist and who exuded the highest degree of disreputability should not be on the Fletcher Board.”

Scaramucci’s lawyers fired back, taking issue with Caballero’s characterization of Scaramucci as “an unethical opportunist…who exuded the highest degree of disreputability,” as well as subsequent assertions that he “sold his soul in contradiction to his own purported beliefs” in order to grab power in the White House. They also rejected Caballero’s statement that Scaramucci is “unethical” and “cares about gaining attention and nothing more.”

Sacramucci’s lawyers have demanded The Tufts Daily and Caballero issue retractions, as well as an apology for the alleged false allegations, or face a lawsuit for defamation.