Manhasset resident Anthony Scaramucci resigned from his alma mater’s advisory board Tuesday after a weeks-long fight with the university’s student newspaper and a postponed speech at the school.
Scaramucci, a Port Washington native, left Tufts University’s advisory board “effective immediately,” James Stavridis, dean of the university’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said in a message to students on Tuesday.
Scaramucci, a 1986 graduate of Tufts, was scheduled to speak at the law school on Monday, but a Tufts spokesman said the event would be delayed until “legal matters” are resolved.
Scaramucci told the New York Times that he was stepping down to spare his alma mater “unnecessary scrutiny. Scaramucci joined the advisory board in June 2016.
“I thought it would be better for the school and better for me personally if we parted ways,” Scaramucci said to the New York Times on Tuesday. “It’s a school of law and diplomacy. I thought it was a diplomatic thing to do to bow out.”
The Tufts Daily has done a series of editorials this year since Scaramucci’s brief stint as communications director this summer, but shortly before Thanksgiving on Nov. 21, Scaramucci demanded a retraction from the paper for editorials written Nov. 6 and Nov. 13. The editorials are still on The Daily Tufts website.
The speech, scheduled for Monday afternoon, was postponed after Scaramucci threatened to sue graduate student Camilo Caballero, who writes editorials for the student newspaper, for defamation of character.
“We did not think it would be appropriate or in the best interests of our students, some of whom could be party to potential legal actions, to proceed with the event while legal matters and potential lawsuits are pending,” Patrick Collins, the school’s executive director of public relations, told The Tufts Daily.
Scaramucci, who recently founded the online news platform Scaramucci Post, posted a letter to the students and faculty on his site on Monday addressing students who have written editorials in The Tufts Daily about Scaramucci, including Caballero, and students who filed a petition to remove Scaramucci from the board, including graduate student Carter Banker.
Scaramucci served as White House Director of Communications for 11 days in July, which ended soon after a tirade to New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza about former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.
“I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own c–k,” Scaramucci told Lizza. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f—ing strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.”
During his tenure, Scaramucci also prompted the firing of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, a Manhasset native.
Attempts to reach Scaramucci and the Tufts University staff were unavailing.
