These Avenatti post have got to be trolling!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

55. If he's been set up to take the fall on a fake domestic abuse charge,

that's reprehensible, of course; and I hope he kicks the ass of whoever turns out to be responsible. However, I agree with the OP that Avenatti should not be considered a representative of the Democratic Party, although it seems he'd like to be. My problem with Avenatti is this: As an attorney he owes a duty to his client to represent her to the best of his ability within the bounds of the law. That duty is primary and is above any other interests or desires he might have. Even though she's a porn star Stormy Daniels is entitled to the same level of professional representation as any other client, but I don't think she's getting it. Avenatti seems to have used her lawsuit against Cohen and Trump along with her unusual, rather lurid past as media bait to get himself on TV - over and over again.

That publicity for himself was more important to him than his obligation to zealously represent Daniels became apparent to me when he tried to intervene in the federal case against Michael Cohen in the Southern District of New York, claiming that some of the documents the FBI seized from Cohen's offices had confidential information about Daniels that she didn't want disclosed publicly. But the judge told Avenatti that, because of lawyers' ethics rules in New York, if he was representing a client in a case he couldn't talk about it in the media - in other words, he had to choose between intervening to protect Daniels' documents and going on TV. He chose TV.

And then he announced he was considering running for president. A guy with exactly zero experience in government - like so many other unqualified shiny object celebrities like Oprah and George Clooney - was suddenly hailed by many, including some fanboys here on DU, as the savior of the Democrats just because he was aggressive and combative and was poking at Trump and Cohen. But the libel claim he brought against Trump on Daniels' behalf crashed and burned (which he should have known would happen if he had bothered to research SLAPP litigation), causing Daniels to owe Trump thousands in legal fees. The part of her claim based on the NDA is now effectively moot because Daniels has been released from the agreement, but Avenatti doesn't want to dismiss the case because he wants to take Trump's deposition - even though there's no longer a legal reason to do it and no court would allow it for that reason. But taking Trump's deposition would be huge publicity for Avenatti even though there would be absolutely no benefit to his client.

I hope that if he's being framed he can get to the truth. Nobody deserves that kind of bullshit. But he needs to get down to business and do the right thing for his client, and he doesn't deserve to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.