Well, Michael Avenatti sure has had a rough run, and one heck of a fall from grace. After his big plans to run for president against Donald Trump in 2020 were smashed a bit before being arrested in March of 2019 for the accusation of trying to extort the Nike corporation, he just got arrested again. Despite his arrest last year and potential for jail time, he has been active on Twitter, trolling President Trump and others since his failed attempt to destroy Trump’s reputation with the infamous Stormy Daniels case. Daniels has ironically also turned on Avenatti since then as well.
The Daily Beast reported that Avenatti got arrested, yet again Tuesday evening by “the Feds”. This time he is being accused of using a doctored document to scam a client out of nearly $840,000, funneling money from a lawsuit settlement fund to his own personal use. TDB reported:
The State Bar of California, the official attorney licensing agency, has sought to put Avenatti on “involuntary inactive status,” setting in motion a timeline for disbarment proceedings.
During a break in testimony, members of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, who are prosecuting Avenatti in a separate criminal matter in Orange County, parleyed with Avenatti’s team of lawyers and took the lawyer into custody.
“I understand that Mr. Avenatti has been arrested by the federal authorities for violating the terms of his release,” said attorney Steven Bledsoe, who represents the alleged Avenatti victim in the State Bar case and was present when the arrest occurred.
Avenatti was taken into custody at around 6 p.m. PST. When the court resumed, his lead counsel in the disciplinary case, Thomas Warren, told the court that in connection with a criminal matter in Santa Ana, Avenatti was unable to return to court.
Donald Trump Jr. took to Twitter to troll Avenatti by retweeting a tweet from “Sean Davis” making a joke about a “creepy porn lawyer” ending up behind bars again. Trump Jr. tweeted: “A couple of years behind bars will surely MAGA! Make Avenatti Great Again.”
A couple of years behind bars will surely MAGA!
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 15, 2020
Make
Avenatti
Great
Again https://t.co/9RV6xoyldQ
This comes as part of a series of trolls by Trump Jr., as he also fired off a shot yesterday at the disgraced attorney as well which was reported on by BizPacReview. The tweet yesterday reads, “Again???” He would have been more entertaining on tonight’s #demdebate than these jokers. What happened?” Well to be fair, last night’s Democrat debates were indeed underwhelming to say the least, in the opinion of many. See tweet below:
Again??? He would have been more entertaining on tonight’s #demdebate than these jokers. What happened?
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 15, 2020
Michael Avenatti Arrested by Feds at California State Bar Hearing https://t.co/87uhv63hIH
BizPacReview‘s take on the story:
Avenatti was arrested by Internal Revenue Service agents Tuesday evening in Los Angeles, during a break in a State Bar Court disciplinary hearing over allegations the controversial attorney scammed a client out of $840,000, Fox News reported.
When the hearing resumed, Avenatti was nowhere to be found. His attorneys called for a sidebar with the judge and said that their client would not be able to return due to circumstances related to a criminal matter in Orange County.
That his arrest came on the night that the dismal 2020 Democratic presidential field was holding a debate was only fitting, given that Avenatti once entertained an idea of running for president on the party ticket.
While it’s unclear and definitely unimportant at this point what the final outcome will be of Avenatti’s future, it’s certainly an interesting sidebar from everything else going on in the news with Iran, impeachment of President Trump, and all the other crazy things that might make the average American wonder which way is up and which way is down at this point. When Avenatti announced he was no longer running for president a little over a year ago he said his greatest fear would be that the Democrats would nominate a great candidate, but one who couldn’t beat President Trump. Apparently his ego led him to believe that had he been able to stay in the race, he would have been the only chance at taking the presidency away from Donald Trump in 2020. See video flashback below:
