Dave Portnoy Calls Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget ‘Grade A Scumbag’ While Discussing Pending Lawsuit

By Candice OrtizAug 3rd, 2022, 2:39 pm
 

Barstool President Dave Portnoy is taking a swipe at Business Insider’s CEO Henry Blodget as his lawsuit against the publication finally begins.

On the Wednesday edition of The Dave Portnoy Show With Eddie & Co, Portnoy gave an update about his lawsuit with the company following their publication of sexual assault allegations made against him in 2021.

Portnoy filed the lawsuit against Business Insider in February 2022.

It claims the publication posted the allegations against Portnoy as facts, but in his viewpoint, they were “an outright fabrication.” He accuses Insider of using the stories as “hit pieces,” designed to drive reader traffic to their website. The lawsuit calls Insider’s actions “outside any conceivable notion of actual journalism.”

Portnoy has repeatedly denied the accusations of sexual assault. His legal council states in the lawsuit, “In publishing the false and defamatory stories aimed at destroying Mr. Portnoy’s reputation, Insider sought to cause the downfall of one of Massachusetts’s most well known entrepreneurs and media personalities.”

Wednesday, Portnoy said, “So the first step of my lawsuit against Business Insider has taken place. It was while I was in London and it was basically my lawyers, their lawyers and it’s — should the case continue?”

“The Business Insider made a motion to dismiss the case, which we knew they would. And the judge, who does this every time so there’s no way to read into it, he calls both parties in and we argue why in our case, the case should continue. They argue why the case should be thrown out,” he explained.

Portnoy began to explain that Business Insider’s defense largely rested on the fact that Portnoy could not readily “prove that what they said was false.”

“I’ve laid out all the reasons we think it’s innocent. Our lawyers said, ‘Yes, we can.’ We have these texts,” Portnoy added. “It’ll be interesting. My guys are fairly confident. They’re like, ‘We think it went well and this case will proceed.’ I hope it does,” he said, elaborating that the case could continue in the next few weeks.

“We’ll see what happens,” co-host Eddie jumped in. “I saw — I mean, Elon (Musk) took some shots at them, too. I saw you enjoyed that,” he added, referencing a recent exchange between Musk and Business Insider.

“Yeah. I mean, I always retweet that — the insider trading. Which they definitely do. I mean, the guy’s a class A scumbag,” Portnoy said, referencing Insider CEO Henry Blodget.

“Who knows if Elon’s somebody you actually wanna align yourself with, but what is it? ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ or something like that,” he concluded.

In July, Business Insider broke the story that Musk had fathered twins with a top executive at his company, Neuralink.

Later that month, Musk tweeted about the legitimacy about the company, saying, “Business Insider (Trading) is not a real publication.”

Musk and Portnoy’s mention of insider trading was in reference to Insider’s CEO Henry Blodget. In the early 2000’s Blodget served on the Merrill Lynch research team, assessing stocks. During that time, he leaked emails containing conflicting stock assessments to what was published by the company surfaced.

Blodget came under fire for the practice widely used in Wall Street at the time. As a result, in 2003, he was charged with securities fraud and required to pay $2 million in fines along with $2 million in profits that were obtained illegally. He never admitted guilt or innocence in the situation and was banned from the financial industry for life.

Portnoy has previously, attacked Blodget during a live Twitter stream earlier this year, calling him a “Fucking piece of shit coward!’

Listen above via The Dave Portnoy Show With Eddie & Co.

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