LOS ANGELES (AP) — Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, has denied allegations of domestic violence after his arrest near his ritzy Los Angeles skyscraper apartment.
“I have never struck a woman, I never will strike a woman,” Avenatti told reporters Wednesday after being booked and posting $50,000 bail.
Avenatti said he has been an advocate for women’s rights his entire career and is confident that he will be exonerated.
Police didn’t immediately disclose details about the arrest incident but Officer Tony Im, an LAPD spokesman, said the victim has visible injuries.
Earlier, he released a statement through his law firm slamming the allegation as “completely bogus” and intended to harm his reputation.
Avenatti became famous representing Daniels, the porn actress who alleges she had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006 and has sued to invalidate the confidentiality agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election that prevents her discussing it. She also sued Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, alleging defamation.
Avenatti, who has said he’s mulling a 2020 presidential run, pursued the president and those close to him relentlessly for months, taunting Trump in interviews and baiting him and his lawyers in tweets.
The Vermont Democratic Party canceled events planned for Friday and Saturday, where Avenatti was scheduled to speak, and is refunding ticket sales.
Like everyone else in the news and puts themselves out there, this was politically motivated with lies as you can read in this link… He was booked but never saw the jail since he bailed out instantly for $50K, peanuts for Avenatti. His case will be dropped within days. This was only a sad attempt to denigrate a guy who’s trolled Trump successfully for many months so he made plenty of enemies. Hence these lies and coordination with a right-wing prosecutor out of control:
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/416793-avenatti-arrested-over-alleged-domestic-violence-reports.
He was apparently released right away and his ex wife said she never knew him to be violent in any way. This is up at the Daily Beast:
“”""“I look forward to being fully exonerated.” TMZ reported earlier that Avenatti was arrested after his “estranged wife” filed a domestic violence report. However, lawyers for Lisa Storie-Avenatti told BuzzFeed News she was “not subject to any such incident” and she had “never known Michael to be physically violent toward anyone.””"""
Perhaps it’s true but there’s plenty of reason to think this fabricated. Avenatti is demon to Conservatives. It would’t be that difficult for some die hard GOP’er to set this up. The Democrats, again, probably took bait when they acted.
If this is a bogus claim, it is incredibly damaging to his reputation. What people will remember is the initial story and not pay attention when it is refuted. I guess we’ll eventually find out how this came about.
They arrested Stormy Daniels on a phony charge somewhere, why not the same here ?
Let’s hope the LA police are aware that some unscrupulous people might try to make a false allegation against a celebrity. Beyond that, there are other funky things in his life–business dealings that aren’t quite squeaky clean, that sort of thing. And is he such a political threat that it’d be worth cooking up a conspiracy that could land your own self in jail? Lots of questions here.