Michael Avenatti said Tuesday he is no longer considering a run for president in 2020, despite his concerns that the Democratic Party will not nominate a candidate who can defeat President Trump.
“After consultation with my family and at their request, I have decided not to seek the Presidency of the United States in 2020,” he said in a statement. “I do not make this decision lightly — I make it out of respect for my family. But for their concerns, I would run.”
Avenatti pinned the decision on his family, but the lawyer has faced growing legal troubles in recent weeks.
His departure from what is expected to be a large field of Democratic candidates came days after he claimed his chances of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination “have only gone up, not down,” amid domestic violence allegations.
Avenatti’s former girlfriend, Mareli Miniutti, an actress in her 20s, alleges the two had been in an altercation last month, leading to Avenatti’s arrest. Avenatti, who vehemently denies the claim, said he expects to be exonerated from the accusations that initially were wrongly attributed to his estranged wife. The Los Angeles district attorney declined to charge him with a felony, but misdemeanor charges are still being considered.
[Read more: Michael Avenatti on his critics: ‘I’m not going to let the bastards get me down. F–k the haters’]
Avenatti came to national prominence by representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her legal battle against Trump. Daniels alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Avenatti sued the president on Daniels’ behalf for defamation after she released a composite sketch of a man who she says threatened her to stay quiet about the affair and Trump said the sketch portrayed a nonexistent person and called Daniels’ claim a “total con job.”
A judge ruled against Daniels in October in that case, saying Trump’s comments were “rhetorical hyperbole” protected under the First Amendment. Trump’s lawyers are now seeking nearly $390,000 in lawyers fees from Daniels and an equal amount as a deterrent against a “repeat filer of frivolous defamation cases.”
Last week a spotlight was placed on Avenatti’s increasingly turbulent relationship with Daniels when the porn star told the Daily Best that Avenatti filed the lawsuit against her wishes. She also complained that Avenatti had not given her an accounting of more than half a million dollars collected on a crowdfunding website for her legal defense fund, as she had requested of him. The two patched things up by Sunday with Daniels tweeting they were “going to kick ass together” after Avenatti had provided her with an accounting of the funds.
Avenatti is also representing Daniels in her lawsuit over the validity of a nondisclosure agreement brokered by Trump’s former longtime attorney Michael Cohen.
“I will continue to represent Stormy Daniels and others against Donald Trump and his cronies and will not rest until Trump is removed from office, and our republic and its values are restored,” Avenatti said.
In October, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, referred Avenatti and another one of his clients, Julie Swetneck, to the Justice Department, accusing them of knowingly making false statements to Congress during the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
As he flirted with a presidential run, Avenatti frequently made headlines for taunting Trump through his appearances on cable news. He urged Democrats to reject former first lady Michelle Obama’s rallying cry, “When they go low, we go high.” Avenatti said Democrats need to hit back harder if they want to defeat Trump.
“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,” he said Tuesday. “The party must immediately recognize that many of the likely candidates are not battle tested and have no real chance of winning. We will not prevail in 2020 without a fighter. I remain hopeful the party finds one.”
Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens agreed with Avenatti: “For all of his flaws, Michael Avenatti has one thing right: the Democratic field is a disaster and the likely candidates ‘have no real chance at winning.’”
