Breitbart News execs have shot out cease and desist letters to three employees who recently resigned from the publication, The Mirror has learned.
The shut-up letters have been sent to Michelle Fields — who was allegedly assaulted by GOP frontrunner Donald Trump‘s resident bad boy Corey Lewandowksi — editor-at-large Ben Shapiro, and publicist Kurt Bardella.
The trio has been all over the news badmouthing Breitbart management for failing to support Fields and for the site blowing Trump’s, ahem, horn throughout the presidential campaign.
As with many publications, employees at Breitbart typically sign non-disclosure agreements. But Breitbart is more stringent than most when it comes to enforcing their contracts.
In fact, in recent days, senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak instructed Breitbart reporters to stop defending Fields on Twitter.
“STOP tweeting about the story. Stop speculating about the story,” he told the staff.
Last week, Breitbart management had Bardella get in touch with Fields in the days leading up to her appearance on Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File,” The Mirror has learned from a source close to the situation, to warn her that it would not be in her best interest to trash Breitbart.
They didn’t explicitly say they would fire her if she did, but according to Mirror sources, the threat was strongly implied.
Bardella denies being told to speak to Fields ahead of her Fox News appearance.
If you listen to Shapiro’s public comments on the delicate matter, he cites already published news reports. Like all the other Breitbart News employees, he, too, is obliged to abide by a non-disclosure agreement. But with a legal degree, you can bet he was smart in the way he negotiated his own contract after he nearly quit in early 2014. Breitbart management renegotiated his terms mere hours after the story broke.
The Mirror sought comment from Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon, but his phone is not receiving messages.
However, since Pollak pretty viciously disparaged the trio in a story published under a pseudonym on Breitbart News Monday morning, it could be construed that Breitbart defamed them — not the other way around.
The story has since been removed. Pollak claimed the piece was a joke to make light of the situation.
Because assault and legal threats are always hilarious.
Note to readers: I’ve updated by story to make it abundantly clear that my sourcing indicates that Fields was warned in the days leading up to her Fox News appearance and not in the car on the way to her TV hit.