So exactly who is paying Michael Avenatti? And is he a lawyer, an opposition researcher, a journalist, or a campaign operative?
He wants to make the discussion all about where Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, got his money but, to have clean hands, Avenatti needs to come forward with exactly who is financing his operation, who his sources were for detailed banking information, and whether he really is an attorney solely representing Stormy Daniels or just using her as cover to wage a political operation.
From the beginning, this has been fishy. Daniels’s previous lawyer advised her to stick to her agreements. In contrast, Avenatti okayed her violating with impunity her non-disclosure agreement on “60 Minutes” despite a binding arbitration judgment against her. She acknowledged on Twitter that she is not paying for her lawyer. So who is? And did he indemnify her against all multimillion-dollar penalties?
It took a long time and even a court battle to find out that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for the Fusion GPS dossier, a fact that was disclosed only after the damage was done, as former British spy and the dossier’s compiler, Christopher Steele, had already created a vast echo chamber as though the material he was peddling had been verified in some way, which of course, it never was. Now Avenatti is being allowed to repeat this same process, mixing truths with half truths and evading accountability.
This week, Avenatti released to the media a report detailing consulting payments to Cohen, and much of it, despite a few errors, has been verified. AT&T, Novartis and a real estate firm acknowledge having hired the president’s personal attorney for insights on the incoming administration. Mueller appears to have investigated all of this months ago, and it is highly unlikely that the theory Avenatti is pounding away at — that Russians paid for Daniels — holds any water or Robert Muellerwould not have passed the investigation on to U.S. attorneys in New York. Russia, actually, is the special counsel’s bailiwick.
It seems that everyone has his or her own theory about where the Daniels payment came from. Rudy Giuliani says it came out the president’s monthly retainer. Cohen said he paid for it. Avenatti speculates it comes from a real estate company that he alleges had ties, of course, to Russia. The Wall Street Journal published an article suggesting that Cohen and his family in 2015 and early 2016 were so prescient that he would need money for Trump women that he and his wife were refinancing their homes to build up cash for this purpose, possibly defrauding the banks.
More relevant, perhaps, is the New York Times story that Cohen had invested heavily in New York City taxi medallions and, thanks to Uber, those medallions were losing as much as 80 percent of their value and cash flow. There is a much more logical explanation for Cohen needing cash in that these investments were going south, and he needed funds to shore them up or face foreclosure.
But this release of a “report” by Avenatti also raises the question of where and how did he get this detailed financial information because he didn’t find it on Google. This is the kind of information that would have been known only by the Treasury Department, his banks or by prosecutors, raising some serious questions about what kind of operation Avenatti is running. Is there a team of people digging this up? Are they paying off sources? Is Fusion GPS involved? Are there political donors behind making this campaign work? He can’t be both an attorney and then participate as an officer of the court in trafficking illegally obtained information.
Avenatti has been given a free, unfettered media perch on TV to spread his stuff without the networks forcing him to meet any disclosure requirements, saying that he is Daniels’s attorney when someone else entirely is paying for this operation is not true disclosure that allows the viewer to evaluate the source and potential conflicts. He is now being given deference as though he is a journalist interested in protecting unverified sources while he makes headline-grabbing pronouncements. Lawyers need to disclose the source of their evidence.
The left doesn’t care about sources, funding or truth. They only want the accusations and the “plausible deniability” (or not so plausible) of being able to get a story to repeat without worrying where it came from or if it was true.
The resistance is paying, take a look at Soros, Clinton, and Sid vicious 50 million gathered from various multi millionaires that want value out of donation to a foundation.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/04/27/donors-50-million-steele-fusion-gps/
Probably the DNC or the Clinton Foundation
Michael Avenatti has acquired a high media profile by way of the Stormy Daniels lawsuit. He’s relatively accessible, compared with Mueller or other persons directly involved in the investigation, and will leak information that they would not. That makes Avenatti an obvious choice for anyone who wants to drop a dime on Trump or his associates.
Nobody has to pay Avenatti up front to motivate him. The media spotlight, celebrity, and association with the various scandals will be more than sufficient. He’s likely smart enough to monetize all of that by way of media appearances, tabloid interviews, and a highly lucrative book deal. Maybe he and Daniels can play themselves in the movie.
I wish I were joking, but I’m not. We’re now living in a tabloid newspaper, reality television America.
@Randy:
Russians. Definitely the Russians, trying to affect the 2018 and 2020 elections.
@Greg:
That is a condition totally the making of the left because they have no agenda to challenge Trump on. If you don’t like it, you should write your Democrats.
What goes around comes around.
Indeed, who is paying Avenatti and who is feeding him private information?
@Greg:
Yes they do.
Yes they are.
Nobody pays him, he makes money by stealing it from others.
Like actor Patrick Dempsey.
Patrick Depsey went into a venture with Avenatti a few years back.
Put in about $9million to buy a coffee house chain in the US northwest.
Avenatti simply put the chain out of business, firing everyone and pocketing all of Patrick Dempsey’s cash.
He’s millions ahead and there seems to be nothing Dempsey can do to recover his investment.