Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has stepped down from the Board of Advisors at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy after threatening a lawsuit against one of the university’s graduate students and its newspaper, the school confirmed.
“This morning, Anthony Scaramucci informed The Fletcher School that he is resigning his position on the school’s Board of Advisors, effective immediately. We thank Mr. Scaramucci for his past service to Tufts and wish him well,” Fletcher School Dean James Stavridis and Tufts University Provost David Harris said in a joint statement.
His resignation comes after the former hedge fund investor’s threat to sue after a student at the University, Camilo Caballero, penned two critical editorials in which he argued the former Trump aide should not serve as a board member.
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Another student at the school, Carter Banker, began a petition in October to have Scaramucci removed from the board.
Scaramucci, in response, penned a letter on Monday responding to Banker and Caballero’s criticism and defending his membership on the board.
“I trust we agree that my affiliation with the Republican Party is not disqualifying for service on the Fletcher School’s Advisory Board. Thus, I assume your quarrel is with my support for President Trump,” he wrote in an open letter to the students and faculty at the school.
“My involvement with the Trump administration, and the infamous nature of my firing, are not reasons to remove me from the Fletcher School Advisory Board,” he argued, pointing to a line on the school’s website that reads “Welcome to an Inclusive Campus.”
Earlier this month, Scaramucci’s lawyer wrote a letter threatening legal action against The Tufts Daily newspaper if it failed to “retract the false statements and issue a public apology,” claiming he had made “spurious claims about my reputation and integrity.”
“A man who is irresponsible, inconsistent, an unethical opportunist and who exuded the highest degree of disreputability should not be on the Fletcher Board,” Caballero wrote in an editorial published earlier this month.
The threat of a lawsuit spurred more backlash from faculty members who felt Scaramucci’s response crossed “the line.”
“Caballero stepped over the line in criticizing Fletcher for inviting Scaramucci to speak. With these legal shenanigans, however, the Mooch has traveled about three counties past the line, and just kept on going,” Daniel Drezner, a professor at the Fletcher school, wrote in a The Washington Post op-ed published Monday.
“First of all, who in the hell looks at a student op-ed in a student newspaper and decides to sue the student and the newspaper?” Drezner wrote while questioning why Scaramucci would “send a threatening letter designed to intimidate” if he is only seeking an apology.
Drezner also said Scaramucci “confirmed” his lack of involvement at the school, telling the professor “he has neither attended an advisory board meeting nor given a single dollar to the school” since being appointed.
Scaramucci, who served as the White House communications chief for a short-lived tenure, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
– This report was updated at 11:56 a.m.