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Adult film star Stormy Daniels’ former attorney, Michael Avennati, has issued a scathing response to her testimony this week in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial.
Avenatti, who is serving time in a minimum security federal prison in California for multiple infractions, nevertheless dismantled Daniels after lawyers for the former president asked Judge Juan Merchan to declare a mistrial because her testimony differed from public accounts that are years old.
In his rebuttal, Avenatti said that Daniels essentially committed the same infraction Trump is charged with, The Blaze reported. He mentioned that last year, a producer developing a documentary about Daniels had reached out to him.
Initially, he contemplated participating, but he decided against it upon discovering that Daniels was being paid for her involvement. He saw this as a blatant indication that Daniels would control, be biased, and lack integrity in the project.
Also, Avenatti claimed that the producer told him that Daniels was going to be “secretly paid” to hide the money because “she owed Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars” following a defamation suit he won against her.
“Among other things, [the producer] told me that they had fictionally ‘optioned’ the rights to Daniels’ book and then routed the money Daniels demanded through a fabricated ‘trust’ that had been set up in the name of Daniels’ daughter—all to hide the money from Trump and avoid paying the judgment,” Avenatti wrote on the X platform.
He added that if the producer’s account were true, “How can DA Bragg possibly rely on the testimony of Daniels, who is herself guilty of fraud and recently falsifying business records to cover up a crime (i.e., fraudulent transfer and wire fraud)?”
“Further, will DA Bragg or others be promptly filing criminal charges against Daniels or others involved in this scheme?” Avenatti asked.
On Tuesday, Daniels told the jury that she “blacked out” during the alleged sexual encounter with Trump.
“I just think I blacked out. I was not drugged. I was not drunk. I just don’t remember,” Daniels testified. “I told very few people that we had had sex because I felt ashamed that I didn’t stop it.”
She also said that there was an “imbalance of power” because Trump was “bigger” than her, while noting that she “was not threatened verbally or physically.”
During her direct examination, Daniels allegedly told a story that differed from her previous public statements. As a result, Trump’s legal team requested a mistrial on Tuesday.
Todd Blanche, one of Trump’s attorneys, told Merchan, “A lot of the testimony that this witness talked about today is way different than the story she was peddling in 2016.
“She talked about a consensual encounter with President Trump that she was trying to sell … and that’s not the story she told today,” he stated. “But now we’ve heard it. And it is an issue. How can you unring the bell?”
Merchan refused to declare a mistrial but did say she divulged much more detail than was necessary. She was also cracking jokes, according to reports, some of which fell flat.
Avenatti was reportedly in talks with the former president’s legal team in his hush money trial and has even offered to serve as a witness for the defense, a report noted last month.
The New York Post reported that Avenatti, who was convicted of defrauding Daniels out of book advance money and attempting to extort fashion giant Nike, said Trump’s legal team “has contacted me,” adding that he has been talking to Trump’s attorneys for months.
“I’d be more than happy to testify, I don’t know that I will be called to testify, but I have been in touch with Trump’s defense for the better part of the year,” he told The Post in a phone call from Terminal Island, a minimum-security federal prison in Los Angeles, where he is currently serving a 19-year sentence for extortion, tax evasion, fraud, embezzlement, and other federal crimes.
The Post went on to say that Avenatti would not disclose any further details about his alleged conversations.
