Is Avenatti being targeted by the Trump DOJ?

[triron]

From the LATimes article: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-15/michael-avenatti-blames-arrest-on-vindictive-prosecutors

"Avenatti’s attorneys filed papers Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, saying the lawyer who gained fame by representing porn star Stormy Daniels and by sparring on social media with President Trump is being unfairly targeted by the Justice Department.

The lawyers wrote that Avenatti was facing criminal charges in part because of “his aggressive public persona, long feud with President Trump, and brief entanglement with” New York prosecutors who blamed him for spoiling a planned meeting with Daniels last year in their probe of ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges.

“President Trump, the leader of the Executive Branch, and his family have demonstrated genuine animus toward Mr. Avenatti,” the lawyers said. “President Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., gleefully celebrated on Twitter when Mr. Avenatti was arrested on March 25.” "

[vsrazdem]

1. Avenatti is being targeted because he's a crook.

[jberryhill]

5. Well put

[triron]

2. More here: Avenatti wants WH emails to prove he's been framed.

Link to tweet

[Wounded Bear]

3. No "good guys" in that fight...

[jberryhill]

4. That's some funny shit right there

His own client in the dispute with Trump says he’s a crook.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/25/michael-avenatti-arrest-stormy-daniels-says-shes-not-shocked/3272212002/

"Knowing what I know now about Michael Avenatti, I am saddened but not shocked by news reports that he has been criminally charged today," Daniels said in a statement. "I made the decision more than a month ago to terminate Michael's services after discovering that he had dealy with me extremely dishonestly and there will be more announced to come."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-avenatti-to-face-charges-over-misusing-stormy-daniels-money-report

Michael Avenatti Forged Stormy Daniels’ Signature to Steal $300K: Feds

So, what are you trying to say? That Stormy Daniels is working for Trump now?

Avenatti is a crooked piece of shit. That’s why he’s going down.

The fact that, yep, he had some dirt on Nike has nothing to do with his demand that Nike pay him $20M to keep his mouth shut about it.

Funny to know he still has fans here.

[RockRaven]

6. Well, yes he is being targeted. By some to-be-determined degree of coincidence he seems to have

broken the law many times. Also, Trump and Trump-land morons poison everything they touch, including the prosecution of people who have broken many laws. It is cluster-fucks all the way down.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Avenatti is being targeted because he's a con man and a grifter.

[triron]

8. Maybe Shakepeare has some wisdom to bear on this?

‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’

(Hamlet Act 1, Scene 5)

[jberryhill]

9. No, it's just plain stupidity

How would the DoJ or the WH go about "framing" him for extorting Nike over their payments to athletes?

The DoJ and WH set up a years-long operation where they had Nike pay those athletes and lie about it, in order to set the trap for Avenatti to come along and demand $20M or he would expose the payments?

Is that what you are trying to say?

Because that stupid plot requires the DoJ and the WH to somehow know about the payments and to somehow know that Avenatti would come along and demand money from Nike over it.

The only thing that Avenatti has proven with his filing is that, yep, he had incriminating information about Nike. So that part of the extortion scheme he has nailed down pretty well. Idiot.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. *And* why would the DoJ and the WH want to "frame" Avenatti now,

when it would be to their advantage to let him continue his weapons-grade grifting unimpeded until he had duped enough gullible Democrats to get the nomination, then drop the hammer on him? What a great October surprise that would be!

[jberryhill]

15. I know, right? Avenatti has already managed to lose a $300k judgment to Trump on behalf of Daniels

...with that idiotic defamation suit he filed (lauded by his fans here as genius at the time).

He's worth more to Trump as a practicing lawyer.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Maybe he does:

"If little faults proceeding on distemper
Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye
When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested,
Appear before us?"

Henry V, Act II, Scene 2

[triron]

11. Very good.

[democratisphere]

13. Absolutely with William "no collusion" Barr in charge.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. Avenatti was in trouble long before Barr became AG.

He wasn't "targeted." He's been a con man for years and it finally caught up with him.

[LuvLoogie]

16. I remain skeptical of Mr. Avenatti...

[jberryhill]

17. "Courteously"

[Crabby Appleton]

18. Then there is this matter of him stealing

From his clients and income tax issues https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1164991/download

[malaise]

19. Avenatti helped expose Don the Con

For that I am thankful but in reality they are all crooks

[Takket]

20. I haven't heard much lately from the DUers that said Avenatti would make a great president

Do they no longer feel that way?

[mulsh]

21. Two arraignments on opposite coasts on the same day, what on earth would make one think that?

yes I do think the DOJ is targeting Avenatti. That was my initial thought the first time I heard about the separate charges being filed and nothing has occurred since then to cause me to alter that thought or change my opinion. Whether Avenatti is a crook or not is another question, the way the DOJ is pursuing him I'm leaning towards not a crook.

[triron]

22. I am doing a little 'devil's advocate' playing here but I feel similarly.

Want to keep an open mind about it.