Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels, called for the dismissal of President-elect Donald Trump’s money sentence on Thursday, as new developments occurred in a complicated legal saga involving the future president and his former client.
The statement comes amid reports that Trump’s legal team recently tried to negotiate a reduction in the huge legal fees Daniels owes the president-elect, allegedly in exchange for silence before he returns to office in 2025.
“The quiet money judgment should be thrown out immediately by Judge Merchan and the case immediately dismissed,” Avenatti wrote on X, before Twitter. “This is definitely a political lawsuit designed to keep President Trump from being elected, founded on the perjury of Cohen & Daniels.”
The quiet money judgment should be vacated by Judge Merchan and the case dismissed immediately. It has always been a political prosecution designed only to keep President Trump from being elected, founded on the perjury of grifters Cohen & Daniels. When the country moves…
– Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) November 18, 2024
The case took a new turn when Judge Juan Merchan postponed a decision on whether to overturn the president-elect’s conviction in a New York hush money court. The decision is now scheduled for November 19, with Trump’s lawyers saying the impeachment is necessary to avoid “unconstitutional obstruction” of his ability to govern when he returns to the White House.
Trump made history as the first former president to be convicted of a crime when a jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in May. The charges stem from a $130,000 payment to Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election, which prosecutors allege was part of a scheme to influence the outcome of the election.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and a key witness in the trial, recently discussed the case on a podcast, The Michael Cohen Showexpressed opposition to the potential detention of the president-elect. “I never thought that Donald Trump would go to prison; in fact, you’ve heard me say that I don’t think he should,” Cohen said, noting that prison would “demean the former president or the office of the presidency.”
Newsweek The Trump transition team and Daniels, as well as Cohen, were reached for comment.
Meanwhile, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported that Trump’s lawyers are allegedly trying to work out a new deal with Daniels, who now owes the president-elect more than $600,000 from a failed 2018 defamation lawsuit. According to documents seen by MSNBC, Trump’s lawyers proposed reducing Daniels’ debt from $650,000 to $620,000 in exchange for her written agreement not to discuss her past interactions with Trump or comment on her return to the presidency.
Daniels’ legal team reportedly objected to the $635,000 settlement offer with no confidentiality requirements. The two sides eventually agreed to $627,500 without a hush-hush provision, according to Maddow’s report.
Trump Communications Director Steven Cheung previously denied the documents’ authenticity, claiming they were obtained through an “illegal foreign hacking attack on President Trump and his team.” Maddow maintains that the material came directly from Daniels’ attorney.
Cohen, who was jailed for three years for crimes including campaign finance violations related to cash payments, proposed alternative punishments for Trump, such as work details or community service. He expressed particular concern about the potential incarceration for someone Trump’s age, citing his experience with elderly inmates at the Otisville Correctional Facility.
Trump has consistently denied having a sexual relationship with Daniels and maintains that the prosecution is a politically motivated “witch hunt.” After the president’s election victory last week, criminal cases against him, including those related to secret documents and alleged electoral fraud, reportedly collapsed.
The changing legal landscape has prompted Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing two federal cases against Trump, to shorten the timeline. The New York Times reported that Smith plans to “quit” his job and resign with the team before Trump takes office in January 2025.
