Michael Avenatti says hed be a fool to count on Trump pardon and is considering becoming a Republican
Imprisoned attorney Michael Avenatti made headlines earlier this year when the one-time fierce foe of Donald Trump expressed sympathy for the former president amid his myriad criminal charges, with observers guessing he was fishing for a pardon should Trump return to the White House.Yet now that Trump is president-elect, Avenatti told Fox News Digital from his California prison that he’d be a “fool” to count on that.“If the president was so inclined, he could show some empathy and reduce my sentence or commute some of the charges,” Avenatti said in a phone interview.“I’m not holding out for that.
He’s got a lot of other things on his mind right now.Perhaps someday, he may show some empathy towards me, or he may not.
But I think I would be a fool to count on that at this point.And, for that reason, I’m just trying to do what I need to do and stay close to my family and my faith at this point.”A liberal media star in 2018, Avenatti rose to fame with his aggressive representation of Stormy Daniels as they sought to reverse a non-disclosure agreement she signed about an alleged affair in 2006 with Trump, which he has denied.Daniels was at the center of Trump’s conviction in New York earlier this year of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to her during the 2016 campaign.Called an “existential threat to the Trump presidency” by Stephen Colbert, Avenatti was a constant television presence in 2018, doing hundreds of interviews on CNN and MSNBC and popping up on Bill Maher, “The View,” the cover of Vogue and more.But just as quickly as he rose, his life of crime was exposed, including stealing from clients, theft of Daniels’ book proceeds, and attempting to extort millions from Nike.Now an inmate at minimum-security Terminal Island federal prison in California, the 53-year-old says he’s trying to fix his life, and he now speaks of Trump in almost reverential tones.“The president is a force of nature… ...