The offending op-eds were written by Camilo A. Caballero and published in The Tufts Daily on Nov. 6 and 13. The articles called Scaramucci “a man whose career and ideals are diametrically opposed to those [of Tufts] and who sullies the vision of the University” and encouraged support of a petition to remove him from the Board of Advisors of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts. The original piece made reference to a Twitter poll posted on the account of the Scaramucci Post asking followers to weigh in on “How many Jews were killed in the holocaust.” Caballero has since published two more op-eds on the subject.

https://twitter.com/ScaramucciPost/status/920274523324329985

In response, Scaramucci emailed Caballero on Nov. 16 calling his claims “spurious” and telling him to “back it up or you will hear from my lawyer.” The Mooch followed through on that promise on Nov. 21, when the paper and Caballero received a cease and desist letter from Sadis & Goldberg LLP requesting partial retraction of the first two op-eds on his behalf. The letter is now published on The Tufts Daily’s website.

The threat of a lawsuit led the university to postpone an event featuring Scaramucci that was scheduled after the original op-ed was published. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Scaracmucci said he wanted to use the event to speak with students about the petition and his position on the board and that he was “shocked” that the university would silence that debate.

In recent months, universities around the countries have cancelled events featuring conservative personalities or seen violence erupt at events that have gone ahead, in what CNN has termed “the escalating battle over college free speech.”