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EXCLUSIVE– Michael Avenatti, the one-time “most dangerous enemy” of Donald Trump who liberals hoped would bring down his presidency, thinks the hush money case against him in New York is flawed, politically motivated and part of a wider anti-democratic effort to take 2024 out of the voters’ hands.
And to prove his point, consider the source, Avenatti told in a phone interview from federal prison.
“I certainly see him as a victim of the system,” he said. “And that’s something that I never thought I would say. So if Michael Avenatti is coming to his defense, and I was one of his staunchest opponents for a very significant period of time, that should tell people something.”
The disgraced former attorney for Stormy Daniels, who once flirted with a White House run himself before his multiple criminal convictions, thinks the four separate criminal cases Trump is facing as he runs for president in 2024 are “absolute overkill” and an effort to keep the American people from having their say between him and President Biden.
IMPRISONED ATTORNEY MICHAEL AVENATTI DOES SURPRISE INTERVIEW WITH MSNBC ON TRUMP HUSH MONEY CASE
Michael Avenatti told Fox News Digital that he thought politically motivated prosecutors were trying to take the 2024 election decision out of voters’ hands. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
“You’ve got a group of individuals in the United States who have decided that they know better as to who should be the next president, and they’ve decided that they don’t want to leave it to quote, the little guy, close quote,” he said of the various cases against Trump. “So they’re going to take matters into their own hands to prevent those people from being heard, and I am deeply disturbed and disgusted by it.”
If you believe in democracy, he says, “this should be settled at the ballot box.” Trump is also facing charges on Georgia election interference, federal election interference and mishandling of classified documents.
“There is no question that these prosecutors are trying to make a name for themselves. Each of them wants to be governor or president or both at some point,” Avenatti said, name-dropping Fani Willis in Georgia as a grandstander in his eyes. “I mean, it’s ludicrous. And the fact that so many people on the left are OK with this because the defendant is Donald Trump really makes me sick to my stomach.”
Avenatti, an inmate at minimum-security Terminal Island federal prison in California, has been in contact with the Trump defense team about possibly testifying in the New York case and says he’d tell the truth if called to the stand. A source close to the Trump legal team confirmed those conversations to Fox News Digital.
Trump’s historic trial kicked off last week, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The case revolves around an accusation that he improperly reimbursed former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payoff in 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels to stay silent about an alleged affair with Trump, which Trump denies.
“If the defendant was anybody other than Donald Trump, this stale case would not be being brought right now,” Avenatti told Fox News Digital. “He has definitely been targeted… There is no question that these prosecutors are trying to make a name for themselves.”
MICHAEL AVENATTI CLAIMS HARSH PRISON SENTENCES DUE TO BEING TRUMP’S ‘MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY’
Michael Avenatti spoke with Fox News Digital from his prison in California.
Trump is the first former president to ever face criminal charges, and he has called the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, “political persecution.” The alleged crime in the case is not making a hush money payment, but rather that Trump knowingly made a campaign expenditure in far excess of legal limits that wasn’t properly reported.
Avenatti burst onto the national scene when he took on Daniels as a client in 2018; they sued Trump to try to reverse the non-disclosure agreement she signed about the alleged affair. That year, Avenatti became a constant cable news presence, doing hundreds of interviews and constantly poking Trump on social media.
He frequently predicted Trump wouldn’t finish his first term in office, and he and Daniels became media stars, at one point posing for a Vogue photo shoot. Avenatti served as a guest co-host of ABC’s “The View,” did interviews with Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher, and considered seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
But as quickly as the seasoned litigator became nationally famous, his life collapsed in a sea of scandal and criminal charges beginning in 2019. He’s now serving 19 years in prison for a variety of financial crimes, including trying to extort Nike for $25 million, pilfering millions from several clients, obstructing the IRS from collecting taxes, and stealing $300,000 from a book advance from Daniels.
Various prosecutors have characterized Avenatti as a “serial fraudster” and “corrupt lawyer who claimed he was fighting for the little guy.”
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings on the second day of jury selection at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in New York. Donald Trump returned to the courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)
To say Daniels and his former lawyer have soured on one another since their 2018 partnership and public praising of one another is an understatement. Daniels has said he used his powers for “evil” and she never trusted him, only hiring him because he was the only lawyer who would take an adult film star’s case.
Avenatti in turn told Fox News Digital that Daniels fabricated numerous facets of her claims around the hush payment from the Trump campaign. In an affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital that he wrote but was never filed with the court in 2023 – the matter concerned a separate lawyer’s representation of Trump – he described Daniels as erratic, temperamental and unstable.
“If Stormy Daniels was standing in a convent on a stack of Bibles with her tongue notarized and claiming the earth was round, I wouldn’t believe it,” he said, going on to claim he dropped her as a client in 2019 instead of the other way around.
Daniels attorney Clark Brewster said in a statement that Avenatti was hardly a reliable source, pointing to his imprisonment for stealing from his own clients, including her.
TRUMP CALLS HUSH MONEY TRIAL ‘ASSAULT ON AMERICA’ AS CASE OFFICIALLY KICKS OFF
“Mr. Avenatti’s representation was terminated by Ms. Daniels after she consulted me and I discovered his forgery of her name and embezzlement of her funds,” he told Fox News Digital. “Prior to her termination of Mr. Avenatti’s services he publicly lauded Ms Daniel’s courage, honesty and consistency. He presently stands as a thrice convicted felon for fraud, repeated acts of dishonesty and extortion. His recent desperate attempts crying out from his prison home seeking some relevancy are truly pathetic. Great source.”
Stormy Daniels was represented aggressively by Michael Avenatti in 2018, but their working relationship rapidly deteriorated. Avenatti was later convicted of stealing $300,000 from her book advance. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Asked what had compelled him to come forward with his recent media interviews, Avenatti claimed he’d seen the unfairness of “the system” firsthand – he said in another recent interview that his own harsh sentencing for his crimes was due to being Trump’s enemy. While he said he didn’t see eye-to-eye with Trump on almost anything, it didn’t mean he wasn’t entitled to due process, and he criticized the gag order against Trump in New York by Judge Juan Merchan.
“I know what it’s like when the government comes for you,” he told Fox News Digital. “Regardless of how smart you are or what your resources are, you have little to no hope of prevailing, even if you’re a former president of the United States. And I think what is happening to Trump right now is wrong, and it’s outrageous. And that is far more important to me than whether I agree with somebody about political views or not, or whether they’re a Republican or Democrat.”
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @davidrutz.
