Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, has been ubiquitous on the cable networks (see here for more on that), but there is apparently some media attention that he doesn’t like. In fact, this morning he sent a threatening letter to the Daily Caller promising to sue the outlet and several reporters for defamation unless they stopped talking about him. Peter Hasson published the letter noting that he hadn’t agreed to keep it off the record since it came to him unsolicited.

Note: @MichaelAvenatti tried to call this off record, which of course aren't terms I agreed to since it was an uninvited email pic.twitter.com/Ve6Guftwqq

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) May 14, 2018

It reads in part: “Let me be clear. If you and your colleagues do not stop with the hit pieces that are full of lies and defamatory statements, I will have no choice but to sue each of you and your publication for defamation.” Avenatti then suggests the Daily Caller is working at the behest of the Trump administration. “So if I were you, I would tell Mr. Trump to find someone else to fabricate things about me.” The letter ends, “If you think I’m kidding, you really don’t know anything about me.”

Avenatti's threats came less than 12 hours after @SaysSimonson and I published this: https://t.co/rPHuQls90a

— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) May 14, 2018

Here’s the DC article Avenatti was apparently responding to. It suggests he’s a man who likes being the center of attention, something I think anyone who has seen his dozens and dozens of media interviews could have intuited on their own.

Those who have worked with Avenatti describe an individual obsessed with fame and willing to use unethical methods to win a case.

“He honestly believes he can get up and say or do anything he wants and there’s no repercussions — largely there’s not,” said one individual who has worked with Avenatti in the past.

“I know this guy; he doesn’t care about anybody but himself. He loves the attention. It’s his whole lifestyle.”

An individual who worked with Avenatti pointed to his work in a number of high-profile cases like going up against Jim Carrey and Paris Hilton as examples of his strategy of garnering as much attention as possible.

There are several specific lawsuits and deals mentioned in the DC story including those surrounding his purchase of Tully’s Coffee. Avenatti’s letter didn’t mention any specific errors in the DC piece, just a general claim they were lying at the behest of President Trump.

I have no doubt that Avenatti takes his threat very seriously but the DC does have a right to report true information about someone who is now almost constantly in the public eye. Threatening to sue individual reporters for doing their jobs doesn’t seem like a very good PR move to me. Maybe one of the next 12 times he appears on CNN someone could ask him about that?