President Trump gave a big boost to nonprofits that safeguard freedom of the press yesterday by once again threatening his idea of free speech and libel, which also serves as a tacit admission that last week’s cease and desist letter from his personal attorney to publisher Henry Holt was an intimidation tactic he knows is not supported by law. Trump’s remarks said: “We are going to take a strong look at our country’s libel laws. So that when somebody says something is false and defamatory about someone, that person will have meaningful recourse in our courts. If somebody says something […]
Legal
Harper Canada Finally Settles eBook Pricing Case
HarperCollins has reached a consent agreement with Canada’s Competition Bureau related to the introduction of agency ebook pricing there, a year after the other parties had settled. Hachette, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Apple all entered into consent agreements in January 2017, but Harper had resisted. They said, in part, “HarperCollins Canada is confident in its position that there is no violation of Canadian competition law and will vigorously defend itself against the allegations made by the Commissioner.” As a result, the Bureau asked the Competition Tribunal for harsher restrictions on Harper Canada. In a statement, the CCB says that “the […]
Perfection: Milo Yiannopoulos Will Represent Himself In Simon & Schuster Lawsuit
After Milo Yiannopoulos’s attorneys at Meister Seelig & Fein withdrew from representing him in his breach of contract lawsuit against Simon & Schuster, Milo announced on Monday he will represent himself. He claimed in a statement on Facebook that the “source of disagreement” with his lawyers was over “Simon & Schuster’s discovery tactics,” in which they received permission from the court to make substantial portions of the case’s discovery confidential, limited to “attorney’s eyes only.” Milo says that means “I am not allowed even to see what has been said about me and my book in my own lawsuit…. Therefore, I […]
Macmillan Attorney to Trump’s Lawyer: “No such retraction will occur, and no apology is warranted”
As promised, attorney Elizabeth McNamara at Davis Wright Tremaine replied Monday afternoon on behalf of Macmillan to President Trump’s attorney, Charles Harder, regarding the cease and desist letter sent last Thursday in an attempt to block publication of Michael Wolff’s FIRE AND FURY. “My clients do not intend to cease publication, no such retraction will occur, and no apology is warranted.” McNamara notes that Harder’s letter “tellingly….stops short of identify a single statement in the book that is factually false or defamatory. Instead, the letter appears to be designed to silence legitimate criticism. This is the antithesis of an actionable […]
Milo Yiannopoulos’s Attorneys Asked to be Dropped Over “Fundamental Disagreement”
Attorneys at Meister Seelig & Fein [MSF] representing Milo Yiannopoulos in his lawsuit against Simon & Schuster asked Judge Barry Ostrager to allow them to step down from the case. They cite “a breakdown in the relationship betwen Meister Seelig & Fein and [Yianoppolous], rendering continued and effective representation impossible.” Attorney Jeffrey Weingart says in a filing, “Plaintiff has insisted on pursuing actions with which MSF has a fundamental disagreement; Plaintiff’s lack of cooperation in this regard has rendered MSF’s representation of Plaintiff unreasonably difficult to carry out effectively.” As the same time, “in compliance with MSF’s duty of confidentiality…and in […]
For People Who Like to Read, the 11-Page Letter Trump’s Attorney Served On Publisher Holt
The full, 11-page letter from California attorney that Charles J. Harder as litigation counsel for Donald Trump sent to Holt president and publisher Steve Rubin and FIRE AND FURY author Michael Wolff has been posted online. (Note that the letter was actually dispatched to generic publicity@ and rights@ email addresses for Holt, along with a nonexistent domain — webmaster@macmillanusa.com.) The full text expands on the key allegations that we covered earlier in the day — “Your publication of the false/baseless statements about Mr. Trump gives rise to, among other claims, defamation by libel, defamation by libel per se, false light […]