Former attorney Michael Avenatti — who was a superstar on MSNBC and CNN during the Trump years for frequently promising to put Trump in jail — left MSNBC’s Ari Melber visibly stunned by dismantling Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump.
Avenatti — who was famously labeled as the “creepy porn lawyer” by former President Trump — gave his first interview since ending up in jail himself. After promises of having the goods on Trump vaulted him to national prominence, Avenatti was sentenced to more than four years in prison for fraud and stealing proceeds from Stormy Daniels’ book proceeds.
When asked about Bragg’s case against former President Trump, Avenatti stunned Melber by raising significant issues with the case.
“I think what I’m about to say is going to surprise a-lot of people and that is that uh… you know, I think this is the wrong case at the wrong time, Ari. I think that the case is in many ways stale at this juncture,” Avenatti said. “You’re talking about conduct that occurred some eight years ago. I think the fact that it’s occurring in state court in New York is a mistake. And I think that when you are going to potentially deprive tens of millions of Americans of their choice for the presidency of the United States, whether we agree with those folks or not, or regardless of what we may think of Donald Trump, I think it’s a mistake to do it based on a case of this nature.”
The disgraced lawyer went on to state that he would have rather seen special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 indictment filed in 2021. “I was hoping, frankly, that there would have been less hand-wringing, less bed-wetting, and that the January 6th case would have been filed in a more timely manner. There’s no excuse or reason as to why that case could not have been brought in 2021, and it should have been brought in 2021,” he said. “And had it been brought in 2021, we would not find ourselves in the situation that we’re in right now.”
He then threw another curveball at the MSNBC host by stating that left-wing criticisms of the Supreme Court and D.C. appeals courts are unfounded.
Once dismissed by left-wing pundits and legal analysts as the weakest of the four cases brought against the former president, D.A. Bragg’s case has emerged as the most likely to go to trial prior to election day.
Legal experts have repeatedly poked holes in the case against Trump brought forward by Bragg. The Manhattan D.A. used COVID-era policies to expand the statute of limitations on an administrative payment error, which is generally a misdemeanor. Bragg then upgraded the charge to a felony, citing a “conspiracy” to commit another crime. The other crime has never been specified by Bragg.
He then copy/pasted the same charge 33 times, one for each administrative error, and charged the former president with 37 felonies.
Avenatti criticized the case and the appearance of bias during his interview with MSNC, telling Melber that it has “a-lot of problems.”
“I don’t mean to suggest that means that Trump will not be convicted, because I think he will be convicted,” he said. “Because number one, he’s a criminal defendant, and in our society, I don’t believe that criminal defendants generally get a fair shake. In fact, I think that the percentage of convictions demonstrates that the deck is stacked decidedly against all criminal defendants.”
“Number two, I don’t think he can get a fair trial in New York,” Avenatti continued. “And to the people who claim that in fact he can get a fair trial in New York, with the New York jury, I would ask them if they were to sleep go to sleep tonight wake up tomorrow and find out that the case had been moved to Mississippi or Alabama would they still think that the trial was going to be fair?”
“And I think if they were being honest, they would answer no. So I don’t think you can get a fair trial in New York,” he added.
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