Michael Cohen fired back Friday on why Michael Avenatti should stay out of his federal court hearing next week.
U.S. Judge Kimba Wood ruled Wednesday that Cohen had to respond to Avenatti’s motion to intervene at a status conference related to the criminal investigation into Cohen’s financial dealings. Wood wrote that Cohen “should include citations to any legal authorities that support his position.”
Citing Avenatti’s “tangential relationship” to the legal dispute, Cohen’s legal team argued in a court filing Friday that Avenatti should be barred from the court hearing due to the “inaccurate statements” he has said about Cohen in violation of court rules.
Although Avenatti publicly released “factually accurate information” on Cohen’s confidential banking transactions, Cohen’s legal team said Avenatti “had no lawful source.”
“Avenatti appears to be primarily focused on smearing Mr. Cohen publicly in his efforts to further his own interest in garnering as much media attention as possible,” Cohen’s lawyers said in the filing, citing Avenatti’s numerous national television appearances.
Shortly after Cohen’s filing, Avenatti responded Friday night on MSNBC that Cohen is only complaining because his team has been making “considerable inroads” on Stormy Daniels’ defamation case against him.
“Of course they want to bar me from the courtroom in the proceeding because we’ve made considerable inroads over the last eight weeks,” Avenatti said. “We’ve disclosed some damaging, accurate information relating to Michael Cohen and his activities. And we’re not going anywhere.”
Read the filing below:
