“Attorney Michael Avenatti has been charged with ripping off porn star Stormy Daniels, the client who made him famous,” the AP reports.
“Federal prosecutors say Avenatti took money Daniels was supposed to get from a book deal.”
Meanwhile, CNBC reports Avenatti was also indicted “on charges of trying to extort athletic shoe giant Nike out of tens of millions of dollars by threatening to go public with embarassing information about the company.”
“Are you fucking serious, Mikey?! What about my family? You gave zero shits about my baby. In all serious though, this is why you shouldn’t back down! This is your chance to be a hero! I’ll loan you some of my balls, hold your hand, or whatever else you need to do the right thing.”
— Stormy Daniels, excoriating Michael Cohen on Twitter, for postponing his testimony before the House Oversight Committee because of threats from President Trump.
Stormy Daniels told the Daily Beast that Michael Avenatti sued Donald Trump for defaming her against her wishes.
“Avenatti also started a new fundraising site to raise money for her legal defense fund without telling her, Daniels said. She said she is not sure whether or not she will keep Avenatti on as her lawyer.”
Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) condemned President Trump’s attack on Stormy Daniels’ appearance as “unpresidential” and “rude,” and lamented that the president’s behavior on Twitter undermines his accomplishments, The Hill reports.
Said Stewart: “It’s not appropriate for anyone to call someone that under any circumstances.”
Rep. Ryan Costello (R-PA) condemned President Trump after he attacked the appearance of adult film actress Stormy Daniels, calling her “horseface” in a tweet celebrating his victory against her in her defamation lawsuit, The Hill reports.
Said Costello: “To say this is unbecoming of any man, let alone the POTUS, is a vast understatement. And to say this enables teenage boys to feel they have a license to refer to girls with such names is obvious. It’s all very embarrassing.”
Costello is not running for re-election.
President Trump called Stormy Daniels “Horseface” in a tweet denouncing her legal efforts against him as a “total con!”
The tweet follows a judge’s ruling dismissing Daniels’ defamation lawsuit against Trump.
New York Times: “The president’s use of the term ‘horseface’ was jarring, even though he has previously used similar disparaging language to describe women who challenge him. But it could also prove problematic for Republicans facing female opponents in the upcoming midterm elections, now just weeks away.”
Stormy Daniels tells The Cut that it’s annoying when reporters use her birth name, Stephanie Clifford, in stories about her relationship with Donald Trump.
Said Daniels: “Yeah. And also, they insist upon printing my real name in every fucking story. They don’t do that to Bruno Mars or Lady Gaga or Charlie Sheen — but even the most feminist, evolved journalists, they still think subconsciously that I’m less human and I’m not worth the respect of printing my chosen name.”
“Like a toadstool… I lay there, annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart… It may have been the least impressive sex I’d ever had, but clearly, he didn’t share that opinion.”
— Stormy Daniels, quoted by The Guardian, describing her affair with Donald Trump in her new tell-all book, Full Disclosure.
In court documents filed today, Stormy Daniels said she “vigorously opposes” President Trump and Michael Cohen’s attempt to invalidate the hush-money agreement that barred her from speaking out about her alleged affair with Trump.
Daniels claims that Trump and Cohen’s “sudden desire to escape” the agreement is a sign that they have been “shamelessly deceiving this Court and the American public for more than six months.”
President Trump said he “will not attempt to enforce a nondisclosure agreement blocking porn star Stormy Daniels from revealing details of her alleged affair with him,” ABC News reports.
Said Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti: “I have been practicing law for nearly 20 years. Never before have I seen a defendant so frightened to be deposed as Donald Trump, especially for a guy that talks so tough. He is desperate and doing all he can to avoid having to answer my questions. He is all hat and no cattle.”
“Michael Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consultants, filed a status report Friday evening agreeing to tear up the original 2016 agreement with adult film star Stormy Daniels, in which Cohen arranged to pay her $130,000 to stay silent about her alleged affair with President Trump,” CNN reports.
Said Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti: “What they’re trying to do is they don’t want me to get a chance to depose Michael Cohen and Donald Trump. This is a hail Mary to try and avoid that, that’s my first guess.”
“Michael Cohen initially balked at the idea of buying the silence of a former adult-film star who says she had sex with Donald Trump, but he did an about-face after a video of Mr. Trump talking about groping women became public in October 2016,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“A day after the recording surfaced of outtakes of Mr. Trump speaking to a host of NBC’s Access Hollywood, Mr. Cohen, then Mr. Trump’s senior counsel, told a representative for the performer that he was open to a deal… Within days, Stormy Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, signed a nondisclosure agreement that provided her $130,000 for her silence.”
“Federal prosecutors in New York view the Access Hollywood tape as a trigger that spurred Mr. Cohen to bury potentially damaging information about his boss, as they investigate whether the payment amounted to an illegal, in-kind contribution or an expenditure that should have been disclosed by the campaign.”
Rick Hasen: “The news revelation about Cohen refusing to pay Daniels in September 2016 is big, circumstantial evidence that could further open up Cohen to facing criminal campaign finance charges. This could also reach all the way to Trump himself.”
The Fayette Advocate “has obtained emails from a whistleblower from inside the Columbus Police Department that outline the arrest of Stormy Daniels earlier this month may have been pre-planned days before she ever arrived in town.”
“Inside the emails are news clippings discussing Daniels’ planned appearance in Columbus, pictures of Daniels with President Donald Trump, videos of her dancing, and even a map to the club where she would be performing, all sent days before she would pull into town on her tour bus.”
“After Daniels’ arrest that Wednesday night, the emails continue into the early morning hours of Thursday, but the contents are disturbing.”
Stormy Daniels “was arrested early Thursday at an Ohio strip club for allegedly touching patrons on stage in violation of state law,” CNN reports.
“When officers witnessed those activities, three detectives approached the stage. Daniels allegedly made her way toward two detectives, leaned over and grabbed their faces. She shoved each of their faces between her breasts.”
Said attorney Michael Avenatti: “This was a setup and politically motivated. It reeks of desperation. We will fight all bogus charges.”
“I’ll put it this way. People forced to play defense tend to get sloppy, they tend to make mistakes. And look, if I didn’t think Michael was doing a good job, I would fire his ass…. Every time I watch him work, I think, This is what it must have been like to see the Sistine Chapel being painted. But instead of paint, Michael uses the tears of his enemies.”
— Stormy Daniels, quoted by the New York Times, about her attorney, Michael Avenatti.
“Stormy Daniels was due to meet federal prosecutors in New York on Monday as part of their investigation into the president’s former longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen, but the meeting has been cancelled after it was reported by news organizations,” the Guardian reports.
“Stormy Daniels is scheduled Monday to be interviewed by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, preparing for a potential grand jury appearance about a $130,000 payment from President Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“Cohen is under federal investigation for possible campaign finance violations as well as bank and wire fraud. An FBI raid of his New York law office and home included a search for records related to the Daniels payment.”
“Attorney Michael Avenatti’s months-long publicity tour attacking President Trump and Trump attorney Michael Cohen could be brought to an abrupt end soon if a federal judge agrees to a new request for a gag order against the ubiquitous Avenatti,” Politico reports.
“A lawyer for Cohen, Brent Blakely, asked a judge in Los Angeles Thursday to issue an order barring Avenatti from making public statements about the lawsuit Avenatti’s client, porn star Stormy Daniels, filed against Trump and Cohen in March… Blakely said an avalanche of inflammatory public comments by Avenatti—including at least 121 TV appearances and 439 tweets—is tainting the court proceeding.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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