Lawyers for Milo Yiannopoulos are seeking to drop the controversial alt-right figure as a client in his lawsuit against a book publisher because of a ‘fundamental disagreement’, according to court papers obtained by DailyMail.com.
New York City law firm Meister Seelig & Fein LLP (MSF) filed a motion that requested permission to withdraw their legal representation of the 33-year-old on Friday.
There was a ‘breakdown in the relationship’ between Yiannopoulos and his legal team that made ‘effective representation impossible’, according to court papers.
Yiannopoulos had retained the firm in July to represent him in a $10 million lawsuit against publisher Simon & Schuster for terminating a deal on his book Dangerous in February.
The firm’s request comes shortly after Yiannopoulos attacked editor Mitchell Ivers, who made scathing comments on his manuscript, by accusing the man of ‘flirting’ with him in series of texts.
Milo Yiannopoulos’ legal team at New York City law firm Meister Seelig & Fein LLP (MSF) filed a motion to drop him as a client in a $10m lawsuit on Friday
According to court papers, MSF claim that they attempted to resolve the unknown issues with Yiannopoulos, but were unsuccessful in their attempts.
They were unable to elaborate on the exact nature of the disagreement but said Yiannopoulos insisted on pursuing actions with which MSF has a fundamental disagreement with.
Yiannopoulos hired MSF in July 2017 to represent him in a breach of contract suit against book publisher Simon & Schuster after they pulled the plug on his book deal earlier that year.
Yiannopoulos had received a $250,000 advance to write the book, but later lost his deal shortly after he appeared in a video in which he condoned pedophilia.
He instead decided to self publish, claiming he sold 100,000 copies in his first week.
A memorandum opposing Yiannopoulos’ motion for summary judgment was submitted on December 21 and quickly went viral on Twitter for the harsh manuscript notes editor Mitchell Ivers made.
‘This is a stupid way to end a terrible chapter. Not worth keeping in. DELETE,’ Ivers comments after one section of the book.
He then crossed out the entire next chapter, on Yiannopoulos’ grooming habits, and noted: ‘DELETE ENTIRE CHAPTER.’
Elsewhere in the book Ivers wrote notes such as ‘I will not accept a manuscript that labels an entire class of people “mentally ill”‘ and ‘Do you mean that semen is being mopped up? And that the gay men spilling their seed would have produced gay offspring? Because that isn’t true.’
The firm’s request comes shortly after Yiannopoulos’ attacked editor Mitchell Ivers (pictured) who made scathing comments on his manuscript, by accusing the man of ‘flirting’ with him in series of texts.
No go: Four paragraphs into the first chapter Yiannopoulos is asked by Ivers to ‘delete irrelevant and superfluous ethnic joke’ about cab drivers using curry as deodorant
Delete: Yiannopoulos is also asked to get rid of a line comparing the ‘Hollywood left’ to ‘high level Nazis,’ with Ives noting: ‘I don’t like using Nazi analogies. Ever.’
Too much: ‘This feel gratuitously racist, like you’re just denigrating African countries,’ wrote Ives after a line about AIDs in Congo and South Africa
In response to the manuscript notes, Yiannopoulos said: ‘”Don’t quote me but you done good” is what Simon & Schuster told me about my manuscript barely two days before dumping my book in February in breach of contract. S&S executives also quoted Hollywood agents who said I’d shift half a million copies and agreed with me about the “virtue-signaling” Left.
‘Mitchell Ivers, the liberal gay editor Simon & Schuster put in charge of neutering its edgier conservative authors, hates Republicans and thinks they are all virulent homophobes. He told me so himself.
‘Ivers said one thing in manuscript edits, but quite another when he was giggling and flirting with me. I look forward to prevailing in court.’
His publicist also sent along texts she claimed that Yiannopoulos exchanged with Ivers to support her client’s claims.
Yiannopoulos was asked in the notes from Ivers to get rid of some ethnic jokes, a Nazi analogy and tone down the constant praise for his own accomplishments throughout the text.
He was also ordered to delete a story in which he stated that Hillary and Bill Clinton were practicing Satanists and told that having sex with a black person does not mean a person cannot be racist.
In particular, Ivers noted that the “Why Establishment Gays Hate Me” chapter “needs a better central thesis than the notion that gay people should go back in the closet” and the feminist chapter needed a “stronger argument against feminism than saying that they are ugly and sexless and have cats,’ reads the court filing.
In response to the manuscript notes leaking, Yiannopoulos said: ‘”Don’t quote me but you done good” is what Simon & Schuster told me about my manuscript barely two days before dumping my book in February in breach of contract’
It is just four paragraphs into the first chapter of the book that Yiannopoulos is asked to ‘delete irrelevant and superfluous ethnic joke.’
That is in response to a line in which he suggests that cab drivers use curry as deodorant.
Next up on the chopping block is a paragraph about the Clintons that seemed bound to cause a number of legal problems for the publisher.
‘Speaking of witchcraft, the Clintons have turned into such villains that the demons summoned through their “spirit-cooking” sessions take notes on them like it’s a master class in demonic behavior,’ read the manuscript.
‘The demons wonder how she has done it all in one lifetime.’
Ives, in one of the lengthier notes given to the author, wrote: “This entire paragraph is just reporting fake news. There was no blood, no semen, NO Satanism. Delete.’
A few pages later, Ives noted ‘let’s not call South Africa “white”‘ in response to Yiannopoulos’ argument that celebrities only ever threaten to flee to overwhelmingly white countries.
A just a few lines later Yiannopoulos is again asked to get rid of a line comparing the ‘Hollywood left’ to ‘high level Nazis,’ with Ives noting: ‘I don’t like using Nazi analogies. Ever.’
Ives also had a problem with Yiannopoulos’ ideas about what constitutes racism when the impish instigator wrote: ‘And given my penchant for black men, denizens of the dark continent, I can’t be accused of being racist either. I’m the left’s worst nightmare.’
There were two notes next to that line, the first of which asked that ‘dark continent’ be rephrased out of fear it sounded too much like ‘darkies’ and would be ‘misread.’
It was the second note that Ivers stressed more than any other, writing ‘MAJOR POINT’ before stating: ‘Having sex with black people does not prove someone is racist. You will have to address the charge of racism clearly and with greater depth, preferably early in the book when you discuss Leslie Jones more fully.’
Meister Seelig & Fein LLP (MSF) filed this motion that requested permission to withdraw their legal representation of Yiannopoulos
