‘I mean, the total collapse of his life is really sort of extraordinary…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) The latest example du jour of the Left’s fickleness and poor judge of character is Michael Avenatti, the disgraced former lawyer of Trump accuser Stormy Daniels, who was briefly lionized by liberal media like CNN for his unabashed attacks on the president.
Avenatti was ultimately dropped by Daniels for misappropriating finances, accused of domestic battery and charged with extortion against apparel company Nike in a dramatic fall from grace last year.
But during his peak around 2018, he was a mainstay on the airwaves at CNN and other outlets, allowed to advance his claims and promote his own brand with next to no scrutiny about his personal motives or ethics.
Some had no choice but to issue mea culpas for their past affiliation, while casting themselves as victims of a con job.
“I mean, the total collapse of his life is really sort of extraordinary,” said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. “And frankly, you know, I feel kind of snookered, because I took him seriously.”
Others in the leftist press are now claiming they knew all along that Avenatti was a lowlife.
“I mean, he just screamed sleazeball, and every time I saw this guy, he was popping up on … CNN and MSNBC, maybe … two or three times a day,” former CNN host Piers Morgan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday. “They were treating him like he was this extraordinary Superman-like savior who would come to rescue the world from devastating Donald Trump.”
Ironically, Avenatti seems to have reversed places with his former nemesis, Michael Cohen. He sparred with President Donald Trump’s former attorney, to the point that Cohen even attempted a restraining order to block Avenatti’s self-aggrandizing publicity tour.
Cohen, himself, later turned on the president after he was indicted on crimes related to tax evasion and lying to Congress in the Stormy Daniels case. That resulted in his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, making him into the Left’s hero for a fleeting moment.
But it seems neither one is likely to be welcomed back on the airwaves anytime soon.
Avenatti, in particular, faces the likelihood of a lengthy prison sentence ahead.
“[I]t’s based on the amount of money at issue in the case,” said Toobin.
“And he’s accused of trying to extort $15 million,” Toobin continued. “So if they use that $15 million as the number in the sentencing guidelines, he could be looking at decade in prison.”
Toobin added that a pending litigation involving Avenatti’s efforts to defraud Daniels—the former porn star and alleged Trump paramour—of her book proceeds could add an even bigger chunk of time behind bars. “The California case is worse,” he said.
Several conservative commentators basked in Avenatti’s fall from grace while noting the Left’s duplicity.
“In front of an audience you can count on just your fingers and toes, one anchor provided a moment of self-reflection,” said Fox News‘s Greg Gutfeld.
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Rush Limbaugh pointed out to Toobin and others that their own dishonesty was what propelled Avenatti into the public eye, where he even seriously considered at one time a presidential run to challenge Trump in this year’s election.
“Mr. Toobin, why do you think he was able to do this?,” Limbaugh asked during his radio broadcast on Monday.
“Because you and everybody in the Drive-Bys are so consumed with hatred for Trump that you will end up granting credence and credibility to charlatans like this if all they have to do, you think, is defeat Donald Trump,” he continued. “You embarrass yourselves with this stuff.”