I'm being threatened by @michaelx. He says he'll sue me if I spread rumors of him being a scammer. I have done no such thing.

I was off line a bit tonight and to my surprise when I came back, I had some PM's on steemit.chat from @michaelx saying he'll sue me.

The basis of his claim is a discussion that happened on a channel earlier today:

And this is the PM discussion (for better readibility open this one in a new tab by clicking here:

What I have said were observations I have seen others make, I only mentioned them further. It's true that I didn't fact check to get direct confirmation of the facts but I didn't claim it directly either. I said others have downvoted him for knowing he's a scammer from past history.

The post in discussion here is this one: https://steemit.com/steemit/@michaelx/help-us-launch-the-first-steemit-marketing-initiative-that-pays-you-to-refer
This post has been brought to it's knees by some of the platform's heavy whales including @ned.

Was I wrong not to mention that?
Should I shut up about it and back down after being threatened with being sued?

EDIT (1h before payout):

Since the post didn't reach its payout I wanted to do an edit and clearly state a few things.
I am noticing that the discussion around this situation is kind of escalating and potentially getting fueled by this post also. What I wanted to mention as clear statements from me is the following:

• I have never (emphasize on never) said that @michaelx is a scammer. I only mentioned what others have said. If the message has been understood that I was saying that, I'm sorry, that was never meant to be, that was not my intention.
• I would never have claims about someone being a scammer, or liar, without personal research into that, and evidence to sustain that. This is something I would recommend to everyone. I have not researched this therefore I cannot claim such things.
• I will not delete the content of this post as it is futile. The entire content (except the images I think) are on the blockchain anyways so they won't get deleted.
• Michael has said that I should retract what I have said. I believe I have freedom of speech and if I want to say something about an observation I've made, I have the right to do so. I am not directly accusing him of it, I am merely saying something I noticed others say.
• I don't find this entire conversation constructive, neither for me nor for the Steemit community so I won't comment it any further nor respond to any other comments. What I had to say is in this post. This is my official position regarding the entire thing. Take it as it is.
• As a person, I can express my empathy to the situation he's going through at the moment. It's not a pleasant experience to be in, I surely wouldn't want to be in his shoes. This is why I don't want to fuel it further.