Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy held an hourlong “emergency” news conference Thursday to respond to a Business Insider article accusing him of bad behavior with three women.
Standing behind a water cooler, on which sat a Barstool Sports mug containing a microphone, Portnoy appeared to confirm a number of details in Business Insider’s recent report about him but strongly disputed its characterization of his behavior and even mused about suing.
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“They belong in prison. They have evidence they withheld to make me look like a rapist,” he said. “I got accused of rape. It’s probably the worst thing you can be accused of with 0.0% of evidence, and they f***ing knew it.”
The article, published on Nov. 4, detailed alleged encounters Portnoy, 44, had with three women and suggested he engaged in inappropriate behavior.
During his remarks, Portnoy confirmed that he had sex with two of the three women mentioned in the article, Madison and Allison, and affirmed some of the details, such as the locations. Yet he strongly denied key details about the nature of the sexual encounters.
He also briefly mentioned and appeared to deny some of the allegations involving Instagram influencer Ava Louise.
He played a video of her interview with Dr. Phil and admitted to misleading the public on a toilet seat licking prank. Louise was the only woman in the article that Business Insider fully identified. She told Business Insider that he texted her that he had been thinking a lot about her and not in a way that was “wholesome all the time.” She suggested that she felt he was trying to lure her to him but did not claim to have a sexual encounter with him.
Portnoy acknowledged that Business Insider did not explicitly accuse him of rape, but he said it was heavily insinuated in the article that he raped several women.
“If at any point a girl tells you to stop and you don’t, it’s rape,” he said before adding that he stops any intimate encounter when a woman tells him to stop.
Portnoy did not identify the full names of the other two women mentioned in the article, but he did share direct messages he had with them.
He denied choking Allison and spitting in her mouth and showed several direct messages he had with her, including one that said, “if you don’t want to do anything, we won’t,” and a subsequent message that said, “miss my d*** yet?”
He referenced an NBC News report that said a Nantucket Police Department spokesperson denied receiving a police call similar to the one described in the Business Insider article. He then showed a tweet from Business Insider Global Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Carlson with a screenshot of a police report, which the journalist said was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Portnoy said the police report was filed on Aug. 10 and he stopped talking to Allison on Aug. 2. He also alleged that she lied about the incident because her mother was unhappy with her over it.
He said he is never going to be able to prove his version of events with Madison but denied the Business Insider claim that she told him to stop a sexual encounter because she was in pain.
He claimed that the relationship ended poorly with her because they did not connect well and suggested that they had a disagreement about former President Donald Trump.
He then showed screenshots of Instagram posts that he alleged a “stoolie” captured of a fake Instagram account of hers detailing parts of their encounter. A “stoolie” is someone who follows Barstool Sports. He also claimed to track down social media comments in which she appeared to cast doubt on some of the characterizations made by Business Insider. The name was blurred out.
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Toward the end of the video, Portnoy said it would be difficult to sue the news outlet because he would have to prove malice. He said that even though his lawyers advised him that he will likely lose and will then have to pay the legal fees, he’s strongly considering suing Business Insider.
A representative for Business Insider said it had no comment on Portnoy’s news conference except that the news outlet will continue to stand by its reporting.
