Michael Avenatti announced on Tuesday he will not run for the presidency in 2020 after months of stoking speculation for a bid to oust President Donald Trump and after facing a series of scandals.

Avenatti (pictured above right) entered the national spotlight in March by representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Trump. He has toyed with the idea of running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination for months.

The lawyer invested a significant amount of energy in trying to position himself as Trump’s one true foil, claiming he could beat the president because he, too, is a “fighter.”

Avenatti released a political ad ahead of the 2018 midterm elections urging Democrats to vote, and even posted a lengthy list of his political positions on Twitter in August.

But Avenatti released a statement on Twitter on Tuesday revealing he wouldn’t run in 2020 — and placed the blame for this decision on his family.

“After consultation with my family and at their request, I have decided not to seek the presidency of the United States in 2020,” Avenatti said.

“I do not make this decision lightly — I make it out of respect for my family. But for their concerns, I would run.”

Avenatti said he will continue to represent Stormy Daniels and “will not rest until Trump is removed from office, and our republic and its values are restored.”

“I remain concerned that the Democratic Party will move toward nominating an individual who might make an exceptional president but has no chance of actually beating Donald Trump,” Avenatti opined.

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“The party must immediately recognize that many of the likely candidates are not battle-tested and have no real chance at winning.”

“We will not prevail in 2020 without a fighter. I remain hopeful the party finds one,” Avenatti concluded.

After appearing extensively on CNN and other mainstream media outlets over the last several months, Avenatti began to plummet from grace following a few scandals.

Avenatti represented Julie Swetnick, one of the women who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during the final days of his Senate confirmation process of sexually assaulting her years ago — a charge he vehemently denied.

But Swetnick’s story with its inconsistent allegations was not viewed as credible — even among Democrats and mainstream media outlets. Many believed Avenatti’s and Swetnick’s involvement lent further credibility to Kavanaugh as he faced other accusations, including by California psychologist Christine Blasey Ford — thus angering Democrats. Kavanaugh consistently denied all the accusations against him.

Related: Porn Star Lawyer Michael Avenatti Will Not Face Felony Charges

Senate Committee on the Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) even referred Avenatti and Swetnick to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for a criminal investigation into “materially false statements they made to the Committee during the course of the Committee’s investigation. ”

Avenatti told CNN that Grassley’s referral was “completely baseless and political.”

To make matters worse, Daniels claimed that Avenatti launched her CrowdJustice fundraising campaign “without my permission or even my knowledge.”

She also alleged that Avenatti sued Trump for defamation without her consent.

Avenatti’s political future also took a serious hit in November when he was arrested and charged with committing felony domestic violence against a former girlfriend.

He was released on a $50,000 bail.

Avenatti called the allegation “completely false,” and the district attorney declined to take up the charges.

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