Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ discredited former lawyer, has stated that he is in contact with Donald Trump’s legal team and is eager to testify for the former president in his hush money trial.
“The defense has contacted me,” Avenatti told The New York Post from behind bars.
“I’d be more than happy to testify; I don’t know that I will be called to testify, but I have been in touch with Trump’s defense for the better part of a year.”
Avenatti is currently serving a 19-year sentence for extortion, tax evasion, fraud, embezzlement, and other federal crimes at Terminal Island, a low-security federal prison in Los Angeles.
He gave no specifics regarding his conversations with Trump’s defense team.
Avenatti rose to prominence in 2018 as a result of the Stormy Daniels scandal, when he represented the adult film star Stephanie Clifford.
Daniels claimed an affair with Mr. Trump in 2006, the specifics of which have since emerged, and while the former president has continuously denied the affair, a $130,000 payment to her prior to the 2016 presidential election is now at the center of his ongoing criminal prosecution in New York.
Avenatti, who was once an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump and subsequently the president, even wrote a New York Times op-ed in 2018 asking for his indictment. He has since converted to supporting him in his legal morass and finds parallels between their current situations.
“There’s no question [the trial] is politically motivated because they’re concerned that he may be reelected,” Avenatti said in an interview with the Post.
“If the defendant was anyone other than Donald Trump, this case would not have been brought at this time, and for the government to attempt to bring this case and convict him in an effort to prevent tens of millions of people from voting for him, I think it’s just flat out wrong and atrocious,” Mr. Trump said.
“Trump’s targeting, in my opinion, is truly concerning.” Four cases is simply excessive, and I believe there is a good risk that it will all backfire and catapult him to the White House,” Avenatti warned.
“Depending on what happens, this could constitute pouring jet fuel into his campaign.”
In response to a question about the similarities between his own imprisonment and the former president’s four indictments, he said, “I believe that the justice system targeted us both.”
Political pundits even tipped Avenatti as a potential presidential contender while he was a regular guest on MSNBC.
He went on to say, “Many individuals on the left were frightened about my potential rise within the Democratic Party and in Democratic politics.” And the fact that I was not readily manipulated.”
In November 2018, his arrest on domestic violence charges abruptly ended any thoughts of a political career.
Two years later, he was convicted of attempting to extort Nike for up to $25 million, and in 2022, he was found guilty of stealing $300,000 in book advance funds from Daniels. At the same time, he pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax violations.
Daniels testified against him at his trial, and he was especially critical in the aftermath.
Speaking about her today, Avenatti told the Post that he expected his former client to commit perjury if she testified in Mr. Trump’s hush money trial.
“Stormy Daniels is going to say whatever she believes is going to assist Stormy Daniels and put more money in her pocket,” Avenatti said in a statement. “If Stormy Daniels’s lips are moving, she’s lying for money.”
Recalling her previous claims that she could communicate with the dead and had a “haunted” doll named Susan, he said: “I don’t know how you can possibly put someone who makes those claims on the witness stand and use them as a star witness in a case against a former president of the United States who is running for president. That is utterly ridiculous to me.”
He now refers to her as a “serial liar” and states, “I wish I had never met Stormy Daniels.” “I should have left her where I found her.”
Daniels has stated that she is ready to testify against Mr. Trump.
Daniels labeled Avenatti a “lunatic” and a “scumbag” while speaking with the Post over the phone, but he evidently does not regret their meeting.
“I was about to say that I also wish I’d never met him, but I’m actually glad because I’m the one that helped convict him so he couldn’t steal from even more unsuspecting clients,” she went on to explain.
Regarding the suggestion that he is praising Mr. Trump with the hope that if he is re-elected, he will be granted leniency for his nearly two-decade-long term, Avenatti stated, “I’m not saying any of this because I’m seeking a pardon.”
