In an interview with CNN Thursday morning, porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti defended the unsubstantiated allegations of his new client, Julie Swetnick, against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
At one point in the interview, Avenatti sounded off to host Alisyn Camerota about the “far-right” punching holes in the credibility of Swetnick by reporting that Miami-Dade County court records show that her ex-boyfriend filed a restraining order against her in 2001 after she repeatedly threatened him and his family.
“She’s not credible at all. Not at all,” said her ex, a 63-year-old registered Democrat, who said that he has “evidence” that “what she’s saying is not true at all.”
Pressed by Camerota about why Swetnick, then in college, would continue to attend the high school parties if she knew that “gang rapes” were occurring, Avenatti replied, “We are not laying out all of the facts and all the evidence right now. That’s not our obligation,” The Hill’s Joe Concha reports.
Asked about the restraining order against Swetnick, Avenatti blamed the “far-right” on the report. “That’s the best the far right can drum up is some ex-boyfriend that claims she’s not credible,” he said.
But as Concha’s notes, the big problem with Avenatti’s ham-fisted attempt to politicize the report is that it was the left-leaning Politico who broke the story.
“Right after I broke up with her, she was threatening my family, threatening my wife and threatening to do harm to my baby at that time,” Richard Vinneccy told Politico Wednesday. “I know a lot about her,” he said, adding, “She’s not credible at all. Not at all.”
“I have a lot of facts, evidence, that what she’s saying is not true at all,” he said, though he told Politico that he was meeting with a lawyer before making any more public statements.
When Politico reached out to Avenatti for his response, he slammed the outlet for “attacking” a sexual assault victim.
“Complete nonsense. No truth to this at all. Her ex-boyfriend fraudulently used her resume to apply for and obtain jobs and was caught by her,” said Avenatti. “Why are you all attacking a sexual assault victim? Would that be appropriate in a court of law? I am disgusted by the fact that the press is attacking a sexual assault victim.”
