“We knew he would crack eventually,” Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti told MSNBC Thursday evening. “I’ve been waiting and who would have thought that it would have arrived on this Thursday, this glorious afternoon in New York.”
Of course, Avenatti is talking about Donald Trump denying on Thursday knowing anything about the $130,000 hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He threw his lawyer Michael Cohen under the bus.
As Avenatti noted on MSNBC, “How can you have an agreement when one party claims that they don’t know anything about the agreement? […] Our case just got a whole lot better.”
This puts Cohen in a very uncomfortable position and it’s possible he could be disbarred:
- Professional Malfeasance: Lawyers are not allowed to freelance on behalf of their clients by entering into contractual agreements without informing them of the actions they are taking on their behalf. The bar will likely take issue with that.
- Fraud: Cohen led Daniels to believe that she was entering into an agreement with Trump but now Trump claims he was never informed of any agreement. Harry Litman o the Washington Post writes: “Such fraud, under contract law, would mean that the agreement was never properly formed. Certainly, a court or an arbitrator won’t take kindly to learning that an agreement the court is being asked to enforce was a sham.”
- Making an illegal campaign contribution: The payment to Daniels was made less than two weeks before the election and three weeks after Trump’s Access Hollywood brag about grabbing women by the pussy.
- Defamation: If he never confirmed the Daniels story with Trump, then how can he accuse her of lying about their affair.
There’s no good outcome for Trump or Cohen. If Trump is lying, he’s opened himself up to perjury and implicated himself in a campaign finance violation. But Trump is telling the truth, he may have ended Cohen’s legal career. Avenatti told Ari Melber on MSNBC that all indications are that the Trump team is “setting Michael Cohen up to be the fall guy.” He’s bound to be under a lot of pressure—and Avenatti isn’t sure if Cohen can handle it.
“They are setting Michael Cohen up to be the fall guy… I don’t think he has the metal to withstand it.” Avenetti thinks he might flip on Trump and if Cohen breaks ranks Avenatti said that “very, very bad things could happen,”
Great article! —thought you’d want to know that you are missing an “if” here “But Trump is telling the truth” and that , in the last paragraph , “metal” should be replaced with “mettle”