In prison tweets, Avenatti warns unseen evidence may benefit Trump in Bragg case

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Tweeting from prison, former Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti has warned that there is considerable evidence in the Trump hush money payment scandal that could benefit the former president if the case reaches the trial stage.

Avenatti rose to fame in 2018 while representing Daniels in legal efforts to invalidate her non-disclosure agreement related to the 2016 payment. During that time, he also mulled a presidential campaign and regularly appeared on cable networks. The former Daniels lawyer lost a defamation suit he brought against Trump on Daniels' behalf.

He was arrested in 2018 and has since been convicted of extortion, wire fraud, and other crimes. He has continued to tweet sporadically while serving his sentence.

"There are many critical facts and pieces of evidence (texts, emails, etc.) relating to the hush money scandal that have yet to see the light of day," he said last week of Bragg's investigation. "And they will unfortunately be very damaging to the prosecution if Trump stands trial. At this point, you simply can't build a case on the testimony of Cohen & Daniels."

The former Daniels lawyer did not elaborate as to the nature of that evidence.

Avenatti posted the warning prior to Trump's Saturday announcement that he expected to be arrested this week, a development that has not yet occurred. He also said that Trump's current attorney, Joe Tacopina, is a much more formidable legal advisor to Trump than any of the semi-celebrity lawyers with whom he has been known to associate.

"Atty Joe Tacopina is no Rudy Giuliani/Sydney Powell. The guy knows his way around a criminal courtroom. He will destroy Michael 'Dumb as a Box of Rocks' Cohen on the stand, esp. seeing as Cohen publicly lied for 15 mos. and now won't stop talking on TV," he asserted.

Tacopina has previously addressed many of the potential arguments against his client. In an MSNBC interview last week, he contended that Trump's payment to Cohen was a legitimate legal fee to settle a bill, noting that Cohen paid Daniels directly beforehand.

"The payments were made to a lawyer, not to Stormy Daniels. The payments were made to Donald Trump's lawyer, which would be considered legal fees," he said.

The Trump attorney has also attempted to rebut the notion that such a payment would have been a campaign finance violation, claiming Trump would have made the payment regardless of whether or not he was seeking the presidency.

"If the spending were the fulfillment of a commitment or the expenditure would exist irrespective of a campaign, it's not a campaign law violation," he added. "End of story. This would exist irrespective of the campaign."