Avenatti Says He's in Contact with Trump Legal Defense Team, Ready and Willing to Testify
Attorney Michael Avenatti, whose misdeeds landed him in prison after his representation of porn star Stormy Daniels made him a headline name, says he is ready and willing to testify in former President Donald Trump’s New York trial if he is called.
Payments to Daniels made in 2016 are at the center of Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan on charges of falsifying business records.
“The defense has contacted me,” Avenatti said, according to the New York Post.
Avenatti is serving a 19-year sentence on charges that include extortion, tax evasion, fraud, and embezzlement.
“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 said.
Avenattie would not discuss what his testimony could include, according to the Post. A member of Trump’s team confirmed that contact had been made, according to the Post.
“There’s no question [the trial] is politically motivated because they’re concerned that he may be re-elected,” Avenatti said.
Considering that Avenatti made his national name as a fixture on leftist networks like CNN and MSNBC mainly because he was a prominent, loquacious voice for the anti-Trump movement in the country — even talked about as a potential Democratic presidential candidate — his statements about the political nature of the Manhattan case are noteworthy.
“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,” he said, according to the Post.
Avenatti noted that the legal targeting of Trump has been a political boon for Trump’s presidential campaign.
“I’m really bothered by the fact that Trump, in my view, has been targeted. Four cases is just over the top and I think there’s a significant chance that this is going to all backfire and is going to propel him to the White House. Depending on what happens, this could constitute pouring jet fuel on his campaign,” he said.
Avenatti said Daniels “is going to say whatever she believes is going to assist Stormy Daniels and putting more money in her pocket. If Stormy Daniels’ lips are moving, she’s lying for money.”
Daniels in turn called Avenatti a “lunatic,” according to the POst.
Trump attorney Will Scharf said credibility is a major part of Trump’s defense, according to Fox News.
“With respect to Michael Cohen, as we’ve said in court pleadings, this is a man who’s been found liable for perjury by a number of courts previously. I think this is going to be a key theme here is the fact, that the prosecution’s witnesses are simply not credible people, whereas the actual facts here fully support President Trump because he did nothing wrong,” he said.
Scharf said behind the personalities are facts that are on Trump’s side.
“This is a business records case. Those business records accurately reflected payments to one of President Trump’s lawyers as legal retainer fees. Additionally, those records weren’t actually entered by President Trump. He was busy running the country from the White House while all this was happening in Trump Tower in New York,” he said.
“We believe the facts are absolutely on our side, that they’re absolutely exonerative of the president and, as long as the jury focuses on the facts, as long as the jury can see through all the media coverage and all the sensationalism and focus on the actual facts at issue… we believe we have a winning case.”
Speaking of Cohen, legal scholar Jonathan Turley wrote in a commentary piece in the New York Post that “this is the case: A serial perjurer used to convert a dead state misdemeanor into a felony based on an alleged federal election crime that was rejected by the Justice Department.”
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