About Avenatti

[Grasswire2]

Without the rise of Avenatti, we would not have encountered Stormy, who led us to Michael Cohen, who led us to David Pecker, who revealed the dark underbelly of Donald Trump using the National Enquirer to silence scandals.

That was the beginning of Trump's downfall in office.

So there's that to be grateful for.

[Maraya1969]

1. I feel bad that he was a jerk in certain aspects and is paying for it now.

I think in others ways he is great.

Probably greed got ahold of him.

[cwydro]

4. A "jerk?"

Is that what we call extortion and theft now?

I still remember certain DUers calling him an “American hero.”

[stopdiggin]

9. yeah. how about "criminal?" (nt)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. I think we were ready to elect him in Nov 2020.

Oh, well, I voted for John Edwards in the 2008 primary (Michigan translation: I voted "uncommitted" because Edwards wasn't on the printed ballot).

Don't look to me for political wisdom or foresight.



To be fair, the MI 2008 primary happened before John Edwards became "THAT" John Edwards.

[Ms. Toad]

14. "We" weren't - several of us saw him for what he was very early on.

And got smacked around a bit here for daring to vocalize that he was Trump in Democratic clothing.

[cwydro]

33. Yep.

This.

[kskiska]

24. What he did to John Kerry was unforgivable.

[brush]

19. The way he first went after trump was what we needed at the time, but when he said he was the one..

to beat trump, that was it for me.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Not so. The feds had been investigating Cohen

and his dirty deals months before Avenatti got involved. It would all have come out without his involvement.

[Azathoth]

13. No, Mueller was investigating his possible role as a foreign agent

They had Cohen's emails for months. The referral to SDNY came around late February 2018, the exact same time Avenatti took up Stormy's case and began crashing around in the media.

Some coincidences are just too coincidental. Cohen might eventually have been charged with something, but Avenatti definitely lit a fire under investigators and dialed the media's focus on the scandal up to 11.

[pnwmom]

25. Not so sure about that. Yes, they were investigating him, but it might have come to nothing.

Berman didn't want to be perceived as Trump's toady, so he let the prosecution go forward.

But there's no way to really know what might have happened if the story hadn't come out then.

[FarPoint]

3. I have no gripes with Avenatti...

I liked his attack on tRump... always will be a hero for me regarding this Kickstarter...

[Sneederbunk]

5. Will Barr review the trial? Will he change the sentencing guidelines?

[lame54]

7. He'll try to double it

[Grasswire2]

8. snort.. nt

[Pepsidog]

18. Good point.

[stopdiggin]

6. and Stormy Daniels couldn't have found good representation

in someone who is not a toxic personality .. and a criminal?

I'm afraid my "gratefulness" for Michael Avenatti will always be of the fairly slight variety.

[Skittles]

39. Stormy shook down a married man for money

she is as sleazy as Michael

[stopdiggin]

42. I won't argue that

other than to point out that she could have easily doubled the amount of money by selling her story to the press. Not sure which of those two options I would consider the most ethical .. but either is probably setting a fairly low standard.

On the other hand ... Trump, Cohen, Pecker, Manafort, Giuliani .. can anyone get close to the toxic waste in this pool without wading through the muck?

[Azathoth]

10. Avenatti was an asshole but he served a purpose

There's no question that without his antics, the whole Stormy/Cohen scandal would not have blown up the way it did. He knew how to play Trump's game because he was just like Trump.

Stormy deserved better representation, though.

[malaise]

12. Precisely

Rec

[Miigwech]

15. I never trusted the guy, anyone who claims the mantle of righteousness

is always suspect for me. He came on like super hero ... and we all know they only exist in our childhood fantasies.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/fantasies

Why Do People Have Fantasies?

Indulging in fantasies—the imaginary, daydream-like scenarios that individuals play out in our heads—may seem like a waste of time, but they are far from frivolous.

Most fantasies, whether conscious or unconscious, serve a specific purpose: They can be entertaining, distracting, frightening, or, in the case of sexual fantasies, arousing. Fantasizing about specific goals can foster creativity, help someone better understand their wants and needs, and even enable them to plan for the future.

In certain mental health disorders, such as delusional disorder and schizophrenia, fantasies can be mistaken for reality, or they can become too rigid or cause an individual significant distress, as in the case of paraphilias. While those unhealthy fantasies often cause real problems for individuals unable to differentiate fact from fiction, for the vast majority of people, fantasies are harmless and provide a beneficial escape from the here and now.

[Grasswire2]

16. It was his sensationalism that drew national attention.

A "regular" lawyer, who might have been better representation, would not have made the headlines or taken on Trump with such vigor.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

17. Can we be sure he wasn't targeted by Barr?

How wasn't he targeted? That's how they roll.

[jberryhill]

29. How did Barr make him steal from his clients?

Or not pay taxes for years.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

31. white collar criminal prosecutions are down under TrumpCo.

Interesting that of all the sleazy lawyers in America, the guy going after master sleazoid got prosecuted.


https://www.huffpost.com/highline/article/white-collar-crime/?guccounter=1#initial-font-size=18

And white collar crime is booming.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rise-white-collar-crime-fraud-183533765.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

30. Avenatti didn't need Barr in order to engage in tax evasion or stealing from clients

or violating his bail conditions with the result that he was arrested in CA during his disbarment hearing. He wasn't set up; he got to be a crook and a grifter all by his very own self.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

32. We are in the middle of a white collar boom/scamfest.

You can bet that the DOJ is perusing Bloomberg's financials.

https://www.huffpost.com/highline/article/white-collar-crime/?guccounter=1#initial-font-size=18

[jimfields33]

36. Nike took him down!

[Sewa]

37. Funny that Avenatti is going to prison for

trying to profit off Nike’s bribery crimes. How many Nike employees headed to prison?

[jimfields33]

38. Interesting point

[triron]

40. Wished I knew the real truth on that. Good point anyway.

[hillhouse704]

20. It takes a criminal

to get a criminal!

[NoMoreRepugs]

21. Lawrence O'Donnell sure had him on air enough.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. Lawrence was conned. Avenatti is good at that, at least up to a point,

but con men are eventually found out. Some of us saw through him almost immediately and we took a ration of shit for dissing the latest liberal darling.

[Leith]

22. It isn't Avenatti we loved

He was what we needed at the time. At the time, it's all we knew about him.

For example, very few here like James Comey. but we like what he said against chumpy at certain points in time.

Somehow, some of us - and most rethugs and trolls - claim that it is the same as luuurrrrrving somebody who turns out to be not so good at some later time. That is not what we're doing. We are cheering someone who does a deed or says something that we wholeheartedly agree with at the time. We liberals don't fall head over heels for some guy with a nice turn of phrase (that's what rethugs do and they stick like superglue). We like what they did or like what they said about one certain situation at one certain time.

rethugs are too stupid to understand it so they say stupid things like "I thought liberals blah blah blah..." while we can only gape at the stupidity. Don't be like rethugs. They give no more thought to what they say and hear than parrots do (less, even).

[blueseas]

23. Exactly

We need to hear from him.

[bucolic_frolic]

26. It was quite a media performance

Most of us saw it as hope, but was it also to distract our focus? Amazing he created the problems that led to his downfall. Did he really think he'd get away with it? A smart lawyer ought to be smart enough to see the situation as other smart lawyers would characterize it.

[zentrum]

28. Good points.

[Thomas Hurt]

34. but he is still a dick.

[samnsara]

35. i have always credited him for the beginning of trumps end..

[Captain Stern]

41. "That was the beginning of Trump's downfall in office"...huh?

I have absolutely no idea what you mean by that.

From where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like any of the the Avenatti/Daniels/Cohen stuff has really ended up making a difference at all, much less caused "trump's downfall from office".

The fat, orange, turd is still floating in the bowl.

Avenatti is just an answer to a trivia question that even trivia experts don't know.