'Bottom of the barrel': MSNBC hit for jailhouse interview with Stormy Daniel's ex-lawyer
Michael Avenatti, the imprisoned former lawyer of adult film star Stormy Daniels, gave a sprawling interview on former President Donald Trump’s upcoming hush money trial that referenced bed-wetting, Clarence Darrow’s hypothetical love child and beloved pop icon Elton John.
It was not met with blanket praise.
“Ari Melber has Michael Avenatti on from Terminal [Island] Prison and his opinions are just as bad as you'd imagine,” commented journalist Jeff Jarvis. “He throws Michael Cohen and his former client, Stormy Daniels, under the bus, where he lives now.”
Avenatti, found guilty in 2020 of trying to extort the athletics apparel giant Nike, criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against the former president but predicted he’ll land a conviction in the case that heads to trial next week.
“I don't mean to suggest that that means that Trump will not be convicted, because I think he will be convicted,” Avenatti said. “He's a criminal defendant, and in our society, I don't believe the criminal defendants generally get a fair shake.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he falsified business records to conceal hush money paid to Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
ALSO READ: No, Donald Trump, fraud is not protected by the First Amendment
Avenatti contended the case was too “stale” and that Cohen’s testimony presented the potential for “disaster,” despite his previous prediction of a conviction.
“He's a serial liar,” Avenatti declared. “[If] Clarence Darrow had a love child, it certainly wouldn’t be someone like Michael Cohen.”
For his part, Cohen argued Melber had been scraping the bottom of the barrel when he booked an interview with Avenatti — convicted of stealing from Daniels — and reminded his readers on X that Justice Arthur Engoron — the judge in Trump’s civil fraud trial — had found his testimony credible.
“Let me remind you he stole from his client [Daniels] and others, lied regularly about me, attempted to extort @Nike,” Cohen wrote. “Just remember the $450 million Engoron Civil decision stating Michael Cohen told the truth!”
Avenatti also took a moment to condemn the slow pace of special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case, which he felt should have come to trial before Bragg’s.
“I was hoping, frankly, that there would have been less handwringing,” he said, “less bed-wetting.”
When Melber asked how he was holding up in federal prison in California, Avenatti turned to the lyrics of Elton John.
“‘I'm still standing,’ Ari,” he said. “I'm doing fine.”
Melber received immediate and direct criticism on his choice to interview Avenatti from his guest, civil law attorney Nick Akerman.
"I wouldn't take his word on any of those two things," Akerman told Melber. "He knows nothing about this case."