AP Photo/John Minchillo
Former Stormy Daniels lawyer and convicted felon Michael Avenatti accused a key witness in former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial of lying on Thursday.
Avenatti – who represented Daniels against Trump before he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for extortion, wire fraud, and several other crimes – took aim at attorney Keith Davidson in a social media post published from prison, accusing him of extorting Trump with Daniels.
“Keith Davidson is lying,” claimed Avenatti. “After I confronted her w/ her own text msgs, Daniels admitted to me in early 2019 that she & Davidson had extorted Trump in Oct. 2016 – it was a shakedown.”
He concluded, “This was one of the many reasons I fired her as a client in Feb. 2019.”
Davidson testified in court on Thursday with his version of the events surrounding the supposed “hush money” payment Trump allegedly made to Daniels in an effort to keep her from speaking out about their alleged affair.
Davidson told prosecutor Joshua Steinglass that he worked out the “hush money” deal with Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen just days before the election in 2016, but claimed Trump never signed the paperwork.
According to Davidson, the paperwork included an “unenforceable” $1 million penalty for breaching the agreement.
Last month, Trump publicly thanked Avenatti, his once archnemesis, “for revealing the truth about two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!”
Trump included a screenshot of a social media post from Avenatti which argued that the gag orders on Trump were hypocritical and unfair.
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