[throwaway40483]

Just to be clear. Emil Michael never floated the idea about doing oppo research to her face. This was done during a gathering with some journalists where Ben Smith from Buzzfeed was present and reported on it:

"Michael at no point suggested that Uber has actually hired opposition researchers, or that it plans to. He cast it as something that would make sense, that the company would be justified in doing."

https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/uber-executive-suggests-di...

[Upvoter33]

Saying something "would make sense" could easily be construed as a threat.

[monkeyprojects]

It's worth emphasizing that Sarah ended up hiring body guards for the weekend following the comments on the advice of others.

There was definitely more to it than just an idea