Trump defeats Avenatti (and Stormy Daniels) again -- here's what's next for the controversial duo

close

Video

Judge dismisses Stormy Daniels defamation suit against Trump

President Trump awarded attorneys' fees in suit dismissal.

Showman and ambitious Machiavellian porn lawyer Michael Avenatti has just learned an important lesson. It is easy to sue anyone, even the president of the United States. It is harder to prevail and even harder when, after you lose, the court orders you to pay the fees of opposing attorneys.

That means that unless the court ruling is overturned on appeal, Avenatti or his client – adult film star Stormy Daniels – will have to pay an as yet undetermined amount of money to reimburse President Trump for what it cost the president to defend against their spurious lawsuit.

In dismissing the Daniels lawsuit in Los Angeles, U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero reasoned that the president has the same First Amendment right to freedom of speech as his critics. And the judge found that the exercise of that freedom includes the use of “rhetorical hyperbole,” like when the president called Daniels’ allegations a “con job.”

The president responded to his court victory with a tweet Tuesday that said: “Federal Judge throws out Stormy Daniels lawsuit versus Trump. Trump is entitled to full legal fees.” @FoxNews Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas. She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!”

Daniels’ failed lawsuit alleged the president defamed her when he ridiculed her tale of being threatened with harm to herself or her child by an unidentified man in 2011 if she didn’t stay quiet about her alleged extramarital affair with Trump in 2006. The president has denied such an affair ever took place.

The anti-Trump press mob immediately took up the damsel-in-distress’s plaintive cry in response to Daniels’ claim, making it sound like Trump was behind the alleged threats to her and her child.

Some of that enthusiasm waned when Daniels was asked to describe the mystery thug and her resulting composite sketch looked suspiciously like a young Matt Damon.

Daniels’ mouthpiece, 47-year-old Avenatti, learned bare-knuckle politics working part-time during law school in an opposition research firm run by Rahm Emanuel, who later became President Obama’s enforcer in the White House and since has floundered as mayor of Chicago.

Avenatti is, in some ways, the most charismatic critic of the president. More charming than Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Avenatti is energetic and pugnacious. He has been rewarded for his activism with more cable news airtime than North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and leaders of many other nations.

For her part, Daniels has also proven to be one of the president’s most articulate and persuasive critics. No comment on what that says about the group as a whole.

At $1,000 per hour, the Avenatti-Daniels team faces attorney fees from Trump lawyers that certainly total in the many tens of thousands of dollars. They’ve already raised about $587,000 on a crowdfuding site for the legal battle against the president. 

How and why can Avenatti afford to constantly harangue the president and spend so much on TV news shows hurling insults at Trump? Does he have a real job? Is his primary ambition to lay the groundwork for a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 – something he has said he is considering?

Could Avenatti become the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020 by showing he has spent more time attacking Trump than other presidential hopefuls?

I predict that before long Stormy Daniels will sue Avenatti or vice versa. “You got me into this.” “No you did.” A con job indeed.