Former attorney Michael Avenatti said Monday that "the fix is in" as former President Donald Trump headed to a criminal trial in New York.
Trump faces 34 charges of falsifying business records related to payments made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, allegedly to cover up an affair just before the 2016 election. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Avenatti, who previously represented Daniels and is currently serving a prison sentence for stealing nearly $300,000 from his former client, on Monday criticized the judge presiding over Trump's case for issuing a gag order against Trump and criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for allowing two witnesses to make critical statements about Trump in the media.
"The fix is in. Never before has there been a high-profile criminal case in America where a prosecutor (Bragg) permitted, and likely encouraged, two critical witnesses (Cohen & Daniels) to use the media in the days leading up to trial to trash a gagged defendant (Trump) and violate his right to a fair trial," Avenatti wrote on X.
"And to my friends on the left who insist they want to 'preserve Democracy' and 'Justice', you should be equally outraged by this. Constitutional protections either exist for all (including Trump) or they don't exist for any. What is happening in the hush money case is a travesty," he added.
Avenatti told MSNBC in an interview last week that he believes Trump will be convicted in the trial despite saying that the prosecution's case "rests on a legally tenuous theory, namely that the crime that was attempted to be covered up was a federal election crime. I think that could be a problem potentially on appeal for the state."
Avenatti in 2022 was sentenced to to 14 years in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from his clients.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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