Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump has had his hands full with bad press lately, but a new lawsuit has driven the New York real estate mogul’s public appearance to new hair-raising levels, The New York Times reports.
The lawsuit involves the company responsible for Trump’s hair and both Gawker Media and Hulk Hogan’s lawyers.
In a letter sent last week to Gawker on behalf of a hair treatment clinic, Charles J. Harder, who is representing Hogan, the retired wrestler, in his invasion of privacy lawsuit against the media company, said a recent article about Trump’s hair made “numerous false and defamatory statements about my clients.”
Harder has demanded Gawker immediately remove the article, publish a public apology and full retraction, the report said. The letter threatens legal action on behalf of the clinic – Ivari International – and Edward Ivari.
The letter continues a legal battle between Harder and Gawker. His Los Angeles-based law firm, Harder, Mirell & Abrams, became news last month when it was revealed Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel was secretly providing financial support for lawsuits against Gawker, the report said. It is not clear whether Thiel, who is a pledged Trump delegate for the 2016 Republican convention next month in Cleveland, is behind the letter.
The letter lists 19 “false and defamatory” statements in the article, many of which were taken from two lawsuits. It contends Gawker’s actions intentionally inflicted emotional distress, invaded Ivari’s privacy and constituted tortious interference “with actual and prospective business relations,” the Times report said.
The May article, which was published with the headline “Is Donald Trump’s Hair a $60,000 Weave? A Gawker Investigation,” said a “tipster” suggested Trump’s hair was “not his own, costs tens of thousands of dollars for installation and upkeep and comes from a man as mysterious as Trump is bombastic.”
In the article, the anonymous tipster said Trump relied on “microcylinder intervention,” a hair restoration treatment “only performed by one clinic that we know of — Ivari International.”