Avenatti: ‘Mr. Trump Realizes He’s in a Lot of Trouble, and He’s in Panic Mode’

EXCERPT:

TAPPER: Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, says those comments were a — quote — “critical mistake.”

Here now to discuss is Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti.

Thanks so much for being here, Michael.

You said the president implicated himself with that comment. How?

AVENATTI: Well, there’s no question about it, Jake.

The way he implicated himself was, he directly contradicted what he said on Air Force One, and he directly contradicted the nonsense that Michael Cohen has been trying to sell the American people for the last few months.

And that is that Michael Cohen went out, did this agreement on his own and arranged the $130,000 on his own, and that Mr. Trump never knew anything about it. How could Michael Cohen have represented the president if the president never knew anything about it?

I mean, it’s a critical mistake. And this is what happens when you’re undisciplined in litigation. You may be able to be undisciplined in politics. You may be able to lie to the press and the American people. But you can’t lie in litigation. It comes back and bites you every time. 

TAPPER: So, you’re suggesting that President Trump saying that Michael Cohen represented me in this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, or the language that he used, is an acknowledgement — that’s him acknowledging that he knew Michael Cohen was doing it.

Is it not possible that he just meant, Michael Cohen represents me, and now he knows because of media coverage about that?

AVENATTI: No, I don’t — I don’t think that’s possible and I don’t think it’s probable.

And I think, at the end of the day, we’re going to be able to prove that the president knew about the agreement and knew about the $130,000.

TAPPER: On this show two weeks ago, you predicted the Michael Cohen would be indicted within 90 days by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. Trump’s legal team used that prediction to help their argument to delay the hearing. And the judge agreed, halting the lawsuit until this happens.

Did you hurt your own case by saying that Michael Cohen is likely to be indicted?

AVENATTI: No, not at all. And, in fact, they tried to use it, but the court rejected their attempt to use my particular public statements in that effort.

I think the judge erred on the side of Michael Cohen’s Fifth Amendment rights. We’re going to take that up in front of the Ninth Circuit likely this week. We don’t want our case delayed. If we thought it was only going to be delayed 90 days, it would be one thing. We’re concerned about delay beyond that.

And we want to get to the bottom of this and have the truth exposed for the benefit of the American people. 

TAPPER: Reports have indicated the Michael Cohen negotiated a $1.6 million hush money payment on behalf of a major Republican fund-raiser who used to be a vice chair of the RNC Finance Division, Elliott Broidy, after his alleged affair with a Playboy model who became pregnant.

You have been out there publicly suggesting that maybe Elliott Broidy wasn’t actually Michael Cohen’s client in this deal. What do you mean? What are you suggesting?

AVENATTI: Well, I made a statement on “Morning Joe” to Mika, one of the hosts, about that. 

And we’re in the process of actually getting to the bottom of this $1.6 million payment. Some information has come to light that I think calls into question the circumstances around that payment and, in fact, whether it was made on behalf of Mr. Broidy.

I find it very, very curious Jake, at a minimum, that Michael Cohen represented Mr. Broidy in connection with that. My understanding is that Michael Cohen had no involvement, no knowledge of Mr. Broidy during this time period. 

And that’s from a very good source and someone with details relating to this transaction.

TAPPER: You think it’s somebody else that maybe impregnated this Playboy model?

AVENATTI: Well, I think it may be.

TAPPER: Are you suggesting it’s President Trump?

AVENATTI: I’m not suggesting anything right now, but I’m going to tell you this. We’re going to get to the bottom of that, just like we’re getting to the bottom of the NDA agreement. 

TAPPER: You just tweeted out the cover of “The National Enquirer” in which the supermarket tabloid seems to be going after Michael Cohen.

There’s the headline, “Trump Fixer’s Secrets and Lies.”

It’s no secret, obviously, that the publisher of “The National Enquirer” is an ally and friend of President Trump. People who have been in President Trump’s sights frequently end up being attacked on the front page of “The National Enquirer.” It happened during the election with Ted Cruz and others.

What do you make of that, and why are you tweeting it out that “The National Enquirer” is going after Michael Cohen?

AVENATTI: It’s very clear to me, Jake, what’s going on here is, is that Mr. Trump and the administration have concluded what I have been saying for weeks, that Michael Cohen is in a lot of trouble and he’s going to flip on the president.

So, this is the first effort on their part to undermine Mr. Cohen’s credibility, so that they can claim, when he does flip, that he’s a liar, that he has no credibility, et cetera.

I want you to recognize this is only one week after Mr. Trump last weekend sent out his tweet effectively coming to the defense of Michael Cohen or attempting to send a message that he had his back.

And here we have AMI less than a week later putting this on their cover. It’s pretty transparent what’s going on here. Mr. Trump realizes he’s in a lot of trouble, and he’s in panic mode. 

TAPPER: But you don’t know that Trump or his people suggested that to David Pecker and AMI and “The National Enquirer.” You’re just assessing based on how AMI has behaved in the past. 

AVENATTI: I don’t know if the sun going to come up tomorrow either, but it’s a pretty safe bet that it will. 

And it’s a pretty safe bet that Mr. Trump and the organization and the administration knew everything about this cover.