Stormy Daniels’ testimony may have little real impact, but may drag in disgraced lawyer Avenatti

Stormy Daniels testified before the court on Tuesday in former President Donald Trump’s so-called “hush money” trial, sparing few details about her alleged encounter with the then-New York business mogul in 2006.

Daniels’ testimony came even as other witnesses called by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg seemed to undercut the foundation of his case, Just the News reported this week.

Her testimony also caught the attention of her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who is currently sitting behind bars serving a 14-year sentence after he was convicted of stealing from clients and tax fraud. Before the truth about Avenatti came out, he was an anti-Trump media darling who appeared on national media at least 254 times in one year. CNN's Anna Navarro compared him to the "Holy Spirit" in one broadcast.  

He claims Daniels falsified her own business records to avoid paying Trump in a settlement from a failed defamation case. Avenatti also claimed in a statement released on X—despite the testimony of other witnesses—that Stormy Daniels and her then-lawyer Keith Davidson had extorted Trump in 2016 to elicit the payments.

In her testimony Tuesday, Daniels walked the jury through her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in a hotel room at a celebrity golf tournament. She described the purported incident in salacious detail and how, she says, there was an “imbalance of power” in the encounter. Daniels also claimed she was in contact with Trump repeatedly after the incident before they eventually stopped talking.

But, George Washington University College of Law professor Jonathan Turley assessed it is unclear what value Daniels offers to Bragg’s case.

“It is not clear what she offers beyond salacious details to embarrass Trump,” Turley posted to X. “The [nondisclosure agreement] is not in dispute… Her testimony will not materially impact the evidence on whether reimbursement to Cohen was correctly denoted on records,” he added.

Bragg’s case centers on the claim that Trump falsified business records in a conspiracy related to the payments to Daniels and another woman, Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, in the midst of the 2016 presidential election to silence their stories.

Instead, Daniels' testimony at the trial may open the door for another witness, her former lawyer and Trump antagonist Michael Avenatti.

In recent days, Avenatti, who has been disbarred and is currently serving his 14-year prison sentence in California, has come forward with multiple allegations from his representation of Daniels. This follows reports that Trump’s legal team had been in contact with the disgraced lawyer about testifying in the case, possibly to impeach Daniels’ credibility as a witness.

Last week, after testimony from Daniels' first lawyer, Keith Davidson, Avenatti alleged in a post to X that the lawyer had lied to the jury. During his testimony, Trump lawyer Emil Bove questioned Davidson about his representation of both Daniels and McDougal and whether he believed any of his actions in securing payments for his clients violated anti-extortion laws.

He said he was familiar with the law and knew he “had to be careful,” CNN reported.

"I did everything I could to make sure my activities were lawful," Davidson reportedly said.

But, Avenatti claims, Davidson misled the court in his testimony.

“Keith Davidson is lying. After I confronted her w/ her own text msgs, Daniels admitted to me in early 2019 that she & Davidson had extorted Trump in Oct. 2016 - it was a shakedown,” he posted. “This was one of the many reasons I fired her as a client in Feb. 2019,” he explained.

On Tuesday, when his former client took the stand to testify, Avenatti released a lengthy statement on X, accusing Daniels of falsifying business records herself in order to shield her proceeds from a documentary from being used to pay Trump related to a judgment in a failed defamation case.

Avenatti claims after he was asked to participate in a documentary about Stormy Daniels, he asked whether Daniels was being paid for her role.

“I was particularly interested in knowing whether the project was going to be legitimate and fair, or instead, a puff piece designed to put Daniels in a favorable light while ignoring facts and trashing me and Donald Trump,” Avenatti wrote. “I wanted nothing to do with the project if it was the latter,” he added.

The documentary producer “told me that Daniels was being paid for the documentary, but that because she owed Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars from a judgement Trump was trying to collect from Daniels, they - Daniels, [the producer] and others - had come up with a plan that would allow Daniels to be secretly paid, while at the same time keeping the payment(s) from Trump and his attorneys,” Avenatti alleged.

“Among other things, she told me that they had fictionally ‘optioned’ the rights to Daniels’ book and then routed the money Daniels demanded through a fabricated ‘trust’ that had been set up in the name of Daniels’ daughter - all to hide the money from Trump and avoid paying judgement,” he added.

Avenatti said that he was “shocked” by this admission and called the admissions “overt criminal acts” including the “falsification of business records.” These allegations, if proven true, would be ironic at the very least, considering the trial of former President Trump centers on similar allegations.

The documentary producer did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

However, Avenatti himself has some credibility issues. The lawyer is currently serving his sentence after he was convicted for stealing millions from several of his clients and obstructing government efforts to collect $3 million in payroll taxes from one of his businesses. In total, the lawyer was ordered to pay nearly $11 million in restitution to four of his clients and the IRS.

Despite the specter of credibility issues, Avenatti may have an opportunity to bring his allegations to the court. He claimed last month the Trump legal team was in contact with him and he said he would be willing to testify in the trial.

“The defense has contacted me,” Avenatti told the New York Post in a phone interview from prison.

“I’d be more than happy to testify, I don’t know that I will be called to testify, but I have been in touch with Trump’s defense for the better part of year,” he said. A source close to former President Trump confirmed the contact to the Post.