« Is the DOJ the US Department of Injustice? | Three nations going insane »
February 15, 2020

Former Democrat darling Michael Avenatti is guilty and headed for prison

By Andrea Widburg

Once upon a time, the Democrat establishment was truly, madly, deeply in love with Michael Avenatti, who represented Stormy Daniels, the stripper whom attorney Michael Cohen paid off on Trump's behalf (using Trump's own money) after she threatened to go public about an alleged affair.  That love is over now, for Avenatti was convicted on Friday of trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike.

When Democrats went after Michael Cohen, an attorney who used to work as Trump's go-to guy for fixing things, it emerged that Cohen had paid $130,000 to Daniels when she threatened to tell the world that Trump had sex with her.  Trump denied her claim and said he paid her just to make her go away (something rich and famous people often do because it's cheaper and easier than litigation).

Daniels seized the moment to sue Trump, claiming that the nondisclosure agreement she executed when she accepted the $130,000 was invalid because Trump hadn't signed it.  Michael Avenatti, a flashy Los Angeles lawyer, represented Daniels.

In connection with that representation, Avenatti made a name for himself as an anti-Trump talking head.  The media adored him:

Avenatti intensified the love affair when he claimed, at the peak of the Democrats' Brett Kavanaugh madness, that his client, Julie Swetnick, would testify that Kavanaugh was part of rape gangs while in high school.  Her allegations were extreme, ludicrous, self-defeating, and belied by actual evidence.  That did not change the media's adoration:

There was even talk of Avenatti becoming a Democrat presidential candidate:

Tucker Carlson had Avenatti's number from the start, famously calling him the "creepy porn lawyer."

And then the Democrats' new idol toppled from his pedestal.  Over a few weeks, he was arrested on domestic violence charges, accused of embezzling client funds (including from Stormy Daniels), and alleged to have tried to extort $25 million from Nike.  That last accusation led to today's verdict finding Avenatti guilty on three charges that could earn him up to 42 years in prison.

Of the many people celebrating Avenatti's comeuppance, arguably one of the most delighted was Sen. Ben Sasse, who released a statement calling Avenatti a "noted scumbag and left-wing media darling who orchestrated attacks on" Kavanaugh:

But perhaps the best coda to the whole affair comes from James Woods:

Sometimes, justice really is served.

If you experience technical problems, please write to helpdesk@americanthinker.com