Avenatti to Trump: 'I am thoroughly enjoying living in your head rent-free'
As the lawyer representing porn actress Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti has been poking at President Trump for months now, but it wasn't until he announced he was representing a woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault that Trump started firing back.
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that Avenatti is "a third-rate lawyer," and later during a press conference, he called him a "lowlife." That didn't do anything to faze Avenatti, he told MSNBC's Ari Melber Wednesday night. "I am thoroughly enjoying living in your head rent-free, Donald Trump," he said.
Trump "knows nothing about me, he knows nothing about the last 20 years of my practice, $1 billion in verdicts and settlements," Avenatti continued. "I'm highly educated, I've been very fortunate over the years, and I would venture to say I have a hell of a lot more class than Donald Trump has ever had." When asked by Melber if it might have been better for his client's case if she went to a lawyer who is not already fighting Trump, Avenatti said he disagreed. "There's a reason why people continue to reach out to me and ask to represent them," he said. Avenatti told Melber his team is "effective" and he's "an incredible advocate" for Daniels, and "if we didn't get results, we wouldn't get hired."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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