Dave Portnoy Vows to Sue Business Insider After Being Hit with New Sexual Misconduct Allegations

After a second round of sexual misconduct allegations against Dave Portnoy were published by Business Insider, the Barstool Sports founder has vowed to respond with a lawsuit.

In November, Insider released an investigative report authored by Julia Black, which cited women who alleged their sexual encounters with Portnoy began as consensual but became violent and humiliating. According to Insider, the women allegedly feared coming forward because of Portnoy’s brash nature combined with his mob of loyal Barstool followers known as “Stoolies.”

This week, Insider released a second round of allegations, featuring claims that the Barstool Sports founder filmed sexual encounters without his counterpart’s consent, with one woman adding that Portnoy broke her rib during a bout of rough sex. The new report was authored by Black and Melkorka Licea.

According to Insider:

Many of these women who were filmed by Portnoy said they were scared to ask him to stop recording because of his aggressive behavior; some said the fact he then possessed these sexually explicit videos and photos discouraged them from doing anything in future interactions that might anger him.

A total of four women have now told Insider that Portnoy has sent them at least 19 unsolicited videos of what appears to be him having sex with other women.

Portnoy seemed ready for the release of Insider’s newly compiled sexual misconduct allegations, as the 44-year-old immediately countered with a lengthy, prepared written response that he posted on Barstool’s website.

In his response, Portnoy denied ever filming women without their consent but did admit to the broken rib incident. Portnoy included screenshots that depicted a woman joking about having her rib broken by him during sex.

Portnoy further noted that both investigative reports from Insider were released within 24 hours of Penn National’s earnings call, which owns a minority stake in Barstool, but plans a full acquisition of the sports media company.

“The allegations are from anonymous sources made about Dave in his personal life and Dave has responded publicly – many of you have probably seen that – just as he did last time,” Penn CEO Jay Snowden said Thursday.

Following their first investigative report into the sex life of Portnoy last year, the Barstool founder threatened to sue Insider and Black. But after the second report was released this week, Portnoy vowed to sue.

“As promised I am now suing Julia Black and Business Insider,” Portnoy wrote. I’m willing to blow up my own ship as long as everybody I hate sinks with me too. There will be no settling. No amount they can pay me to get them off their backs. I won’t rest till I put these people out of business. Like I always say. The reason I come out on top 100% of the time in these things is because I always have the truth on my side and I do here once again.”

Insider’s second investigative report was joined by an Editor’s Note from Nicholas Carlson, Global Editor-in-Chief of Insider.

“We published our stories on Dave Portnoy because we consider them to be in the public interest and newsworthy,” Carlson wrote.

“When a rich, famous, and powerful person uses their power in a way that is harmful to other people, it is newsworthy. When such a person faces such accusations from credible sources and denies them — and then more accusers make new, credible accusations that corroborate and add detail to the alleged pattern of behavior, it is newsworthy.”