WALSH: Michael Avenatti Deserves To Be Believed

As you’ve heard, esteemed legal professional Michael Avenatti has been arrested for domestic abuse. Details about the charges and the victim have been minimal so far. We have no objective reason to assume that Avenatti is guilty of anything.

One cannot help but notice the context, though. Avenatti has been a crusader for the #MeToo movement. He has insisted that we must believe women. When Brett Kavanaugh faced decades-old accusations with no evidence to support them, Avenatti did not once caution that Kavanaugh deserves the presumption of innocence. In fact, he contributed to the smear campaign by presenting even more allegations, these from an unbalanced woman with a known history of lying. He wanted us to believe Julie Swetnick even though Swetnick’s claims were unsubstantiated and ludicrous on their face.