Gawker Says Peter Thiel’s Lawyer Threatened Lawsuit Over Article About Trump’s Hair

Charles J. Harder says exposé on Trump’s hair was “false and defamatory”

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Gawker has reportedly been threatened with yet another lawsuit, this time over a post about Donald Trump’s hair.

The blog network says Charles J. Harder, the lawyer funded by Peter Thiel in multiple cases against Gawker Media, sent the company a letter last week on behalf of Edward Ivari, the owner of the hair-restoration company Gawker suggested may be behind Trump’s much-discussed hair in a post last month.

Gawker said it was sent a six-page letter that claims the story “was ‘false and defamatory,’ invaded Ivari’s privacy, intentionally inflicted emotional distress, and committed ‘tortious interference’ with Ivari’s business relations.”

In the lengthy Gawker story, published on May 24, reporter Ashley Feinberg suggested that Trump secretly underwent Ivari International’s $60,000 “microcylinder intervention” treatment, with the company’s offices located on the 25th floor of Trump Tower.

Gawker called Ivari’s claims “ridiculous,” noting that the statements at issue were pulled from his own publicity materials and from public records of a 2001 lawsuit against his company.

Gawker Media recently lost a $140 million lawsuit brought by Hulk Hogan, which forced the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week. Thiel, PayPal founder and Facebook board member, was revealed to have secretly funded this and other legal battles against the company in an effort to shut it down.

Harder did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.

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