Although porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer claimed to have evidence tying President Donald Trump to Russians during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, special counsel Robert Mueller “apparently” didn’t think “it was part of this collusion case,” attorney Robert Driscoll said Wednesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
Michael Avenatti is representing Daniels in her legal battle against Trump and his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000, which Trump later reimbursed, as part of a nondisclosure agreement a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Avenatti has been all over the mainstream media in recent days, but Driscoll (pictured above, center) punched a huge hole in the latest sensational claim by Daniels’ advocate.
After the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel in April, Mueller issued a referral to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Then on Tuesday, Avenatti claimed Cohen received $500,000 in payments from businesses — including one linked to a Russian billionaire — through a company he established shortly before the 2016 election.
Driscoll, the former deputy assistant attorney general and chief of staff of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that the Cohen connection with the Russian doesn’t prove what Avenatti says it does.
“Mueller made the referral to the Southern District of New York. If it had anything to do with Russian collusion, it would have been held,” Driscoll said. “But it’s not news to the investigators, and they haven’t apparently thought it was part of this collusion case.”
Fox News contributor and Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York agreed with Driscoll, noting, “If this is the smoking gun of collusion, why did Robert Mueller’s investigators farm this case out to the attorneys at the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York?”
“I mean, this would seem to be in the heart of the Russia investigation, and yet Mueller gave it to somebody else,” York (pictured above, left) continued.
Avenatti released a suspicious activity report Tuesday, alleging Cohen conducted “possible fraudulent and illegal financial transactions.” But Avenatti’s credibility suffered another blow after The Daily Caller confirmed Wednesday that two of the payments supposedly made to Trump’s lawyer were actually made to other men named Michael Cohen.
“What about the fact that this guy is smearing the wrong Michael Cohen?” Ingraham asked. “It’s like he’s throwing this all at the feet of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, and there are other Michael Cohens.”
“That’s like, a basic first-year law student wouldn’t allow that mistake to happen. I mean, you’d be fired as an associate at the firm I used to work for if you made that mistake,” Ingraham added. “And this guy is trotting himself all over television, bragging.”
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The Treasury Department inspector general has begun investigating Avenatti on how the attorney obtained Cohen’s confidential financial records.
“And now the Treasury Department is investigating to see if any of their employees called the Michael Avenatti tip line and told him about this,” York said.
Ingraham noted that there “have been quite a few mistruths stated by Michael Avenatti, who is brought on to some of these other networks as almost like an analyst.”
Avenatti often seems to be a permanent fixture on CNN. The Media Research Center (MRC) found last week that the network did 59 on-air interviews with Avenatti in less than two months. That’s more than one interview every day for Avenatti from March 7 through April 30.
“It’s really shortsighted for the media to take almost everything this guy says as gospel, and I think they’re embarrassing themselves every night on this.”
“They almost forget that he’s representing a client,” Ingraham said. “I think it hurts their case. I think it’s really shortsighted for the media to take almost everything this guy says as gospel, and I think they’re embarrassing themselves every night on this.”
One of Avenatti’s more prominent “mistruths” occurred last week, when he claimed he knew for a “fact” that the FBI had wiretapped Cohen. The FBI did not wiretap Cohen — although the bureau did monitor his phone calls.
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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