Stormy Daniels’ lawyer says he wants to run for president

First he sued the president — now he wants to be the president.

It’s true: Lawyer for Stormy Daniels and cable news fixture Michael Avenatti announced in Iowa on Thursday that he wants to run for president as a Democrat in 2020.

"I’m exploring a run for the presidency of the United States, and I wanted to come to Iowa and listen to people and learn about some issues that are facing the citizens of Iowa and do my homework," Avenatti, 47, told the Des Moines Register. He is scheduled to speak at the Democratic Wing Ding dinner Friday night, a frequent stop for presidential hopefuls, where he will speak alongside Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio who is also exploring a presidential run.

“Stormy is 100 percent supportive,” Avenatti said of his porn star client, per the New York Times. “She knows these are dire times.”

And in a show of presidential mettle, Avenatti followed up on the interviews with some tweets about the race.

Avenatti was basically unknown nationally until this March, when he filed a lawsuit on behalf of Daniels claiming that a nondisclosure agreement she signed in the lead up to the 2016 election was invalid. Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump in 2006 shortly after Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron.

Avenatti has leveraged the affair — and the $130,000 in hush money that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent to Daniels in October of 2016 through a limited liability corporation — to fashion himself as a progressive Resistance hero for some on the left. Frequent appearances on MSNBC and CNN haven’t hurt his name recognition.

Like the man in the Oval Office he hopes to succeed, Avenatti has proven adept at commanding media attention, whether it’s on behalf of his client or to distract from his own problems. And he does appear to have a few million of them.

The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Avenatti’s law firm, Eagan Avenatti, was ordered in U.S. bankruptcy court to pay $10 million to a former colleague, Jason Frank, that had not been paid as promised. Frank initially attempted to secure his money through arbitration in 2017 but the retired judges presiding over the case accused Avenatti’s firm of acting with "malice, oppression and fraud" when the firm failed to produce financial documents and tax returns.

Avanatti’s firm also missed a deadline to pay over $400,000 in back taxes — part of an agreement with the IRS reach in January of 2018 to pay the IRS $2.4 million — Assistant U.S. Atty. Najah Shariff told the judge at the bankruptcy hearing.

And that’s just the beginning of Avenatti’s shady financial history. The IRS has had a $904,000 lien on his personal property as recently as this spring over unpaid income taxes in 2009 and 2010, according to the Los Angeles Times. Avenatti also bought Tully’s Coffee in 2013, which has been sued by multiple landlords for back rent or eviction on their stores. In June of 2017,the IRS also put a $5 million lien on Global Baristas U.S., the parent company for Tully’s, saying Avenatti was responsible for the payment.

Avenatti also appears to have no problem launching Trumpian attacks on the media when they publish unflattering stories. "Over blown. Sensational reporting at its finest,” Avenatti emailed the Los Angeles Times when they reported on the bankruptcy hearing and the delinquent payments to the IRS. Avenatti claimed that the story was a nothing burger because the Stormy Daniels case was being run out of a different firm, Avenatti & Associates, but Avenatti has emailed reporters about the Daniels case from his Eagan Avenatti address.

Avenatti has also tried to spin the allegations as evidence that he is tough and savvy.

“The kind of work I do,” Avenatti told The New York Times, “there’s usually a lot of money on the line, there are jobs on the line. It’s not a world that lends itself to everyone being friendly all the time. We’re certainly not sitting around holding hands, singing ‘Kumbaya.’”

Perhaps he is ready for the presidency.

Cover image: Michael Avenatti, lawyer of adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. Avenatti discussed the allegations against President Donald Trump. Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images