Free Republic

A lot of stupid rumors have bubbled up from 4chan's anonymous internet forums over the years, percolating through the public consciousness and wafting into national news headlines before they inevitably evaporate back into obscurity, leaving reality just a little more polluted. Remember the one about the CIA supposedly mistaking 4chan fan-fiction for a dossier of Russian intelligence? Or the one where a 4chan regular, "QAnon," was supposed to be secretly allied with President Trump in a war against global evil? All were nonsense. All made the news, regardless. Remember the one - just Tuesday, actually - where a 4chan user...

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels and a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, jumped into the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation battle on the afternoon of Sept. 23. On that day, The New Yorker had published the allegations of a woman named Deborah Ramirez, who claimed that a drunken Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a party at Yale sometime in 1983 or 1984. Almost immediately, Avenatti took to Twitter with an allegation of his own. Avenatti said he had a client, "a woman with credible information regarding Judge Kavanaugh and Mark Judge." He did not reveal her...

President Trump wants more than $300,000 in legal fees from porn star Stormy Daniels, after a federal judge dismissed her defamation lawsuit against the president and determined he was entitled to attorney fees. In a court filing on Monday, Trump’s attorneys said they are seeking $341,559.50 in attorney’s fees from Daniels, who has been involved in a legal battle with Trump since the beginning of this year due to an alleged extramarital affair. She filed a separate defamation lawsuit against Trump in the spring for suggesting she lied. The filing claims that Daniels “filed this action, not because it had...

Michael Avenatti has assembled a team of Democratic political veterans who are helping him coordinate meetings with donors, connect with national and state party officials, craft messaging and build out a digital fundraising apparatus designed to enable a 2020 presidential bid. Avenatti’s already long prospects suffered a blow Thursday after he was quoted in Time magazine as saying the Democratic presidential nominee who will battle President Donald Trump “better be a white male” — remarks he contends were taken out of context. The same day, the Senate Judiciary Committee referred Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick to the Justice Department...

Attorney Michael Avenatti on Sunday night assailed President Donald Trump’s “racism and bigotry,” painting himself as the working-class fighter who can stand up to the president’s “unusual cruelty” and “make America decent again.” An aggressive trial attorney and 2020 hopeful, Avenatti has sold himself as the Democrat tough enough to take on Trump. He’s best known for representing porn actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against the president over what was characterized as a 2016 hush money payment. But his presidential ambitions took a major hit last week when he was quoted in Time magazine as saying the Democratic presidential...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Friday that he is issuing a second criminal referral regarding lawyer Michael Avenatti. Grassley announced the move a day after referring Avenatti and his client, Julie Swetnick, to the Justice Department for a potential criminal investigation into whether they made false statements to Congress about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The GOP chairman indicated that the second referral was precipitated by an NBC News report on Thursday, which contended that Swetnick denied making key allegations, saying that Avenatti “twisted [her] words.” Avenatti responded in a statement to The Hill, calling Grassley's referral...

NBC News deliberately hid vital information that would have helped clear Brett Kavanaugh of the serial rape allegations Julie Swetnick and her attorney, Michael Avenatti, leveled against him. On September 16, Kavanaugh and his loved ones were dropped into a pit of hell due to allegations of sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford. Although her story quickly fell apart during public testimony, for the three-plus weeks that would follow, in an effort to derail his confirmation, Democrats and their allies in the establishment media did everything in their power to personally destroy this man as a drunken serial rapist.

NBC News deliberately hid vital information that would have helped clear Brett Kavanaugh of the serial rape allegations Julie Swetnick and her attorney, Michael Avenatti, leveled against him. On September 16, Kavanaugh and his loved ones were dropped into a pit of hell due to allegations of sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford. Although her story quickly fell apart during public testimony, for the three-plus weeks that would follow, in an effort to derail his confirmation, Democrats and their allies in the establishment media did everything in their power to personally destroy this man as a drunken serial rapist. NBC...

Lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted Thursday that he is ready to cooperate with a Justice Department investigation into himself and client Julie Swetnick as soon as "tonight." His tweet, directed at Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), came hours after Grassley announced he is referring Swetnick and Avenatti to the Justice Department for a potential criminal investigation into whether they made false statements to Congress about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh "@ChuckGrassley, let’s start the investigation tonight," Avenatti tweeted on Thursday evening. "I will make my client available for a sworn interview and you can make Judge Kavanaugh available for...

NBC News also found other apparent inconsistencies in a second sworn statement from another woman whose statement Avenatti provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee in a bid to bolster Swetnick's claims.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley asked the Justice Department Thursday to investigate anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick, saying they likely fed senators “materially false” information by accusing Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of involvement in gang rapes. Mr. Grassley suggested Mr. Avenatti invented clients to try to embarrass Justice Kavanaugh, and the senator said Ms. Swetnick — the only client who did come forward — gave multiple versions of her story. The Iowa Republican, long an advocate for whistleblowers, said he welcomed “well-meaning” complaints from citizens. “But in the heat of partisan moments, some do try...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Thursday that he is referring Julie Swetnick and her lawyer Michael Avenatti to the Justice Department for a potential criminal investigation into whether they made false statements to Congress about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Grassley said that in addition to making false statements, he is asking for the Justice Department to look into whether the two sought to obstruct his panel's investigation of the allegations against Kavanaugh. "The law prohibits such false statements to Congress and obstruction of congressional committee investigations. For the law to work, we can’t just brush aside...

Michael Avenatti said the Democratic Party's choice to take on President Donald Trump in 2020 should be a white man, according to an interview with Time magazine published Thursday. "I think it better be a white male," Avenatti, a 2020 potential candidate himself, said. Avenatti said in the piece that he wished it was not the case that white men, as he and Trump are, are listened to more than people of other races and genders, but that he believed his identity was part of why he had been able to defend adult film star Stormy Daniels and immigrant mothers....

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) on Thursday referred lawyer Michael Avenatti and Julie Swetnick — one of the women who accused now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh of misconduct during his confirmation proceedings — to the Department of Justice for a criminal probe, alleging that they made “materially false” statements to Grassley’s committee as it investigated the allegations. Swetnick said in a September affidavit that Kavanaugh attended a 1982 house party during which she says she was gang raped — an accusation Kavanaugh vehemently denied and said was from the “Twilight Zone.” Grassley said he is asking...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Thursday that he is referring Julie Swetnick and her lawyer Michael Avenatti to the Justice Department for a potential criminal investigation into whether they made false statements to Congress about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. "The law prohibits such false statements to Congress and obstruction of congressional committee investigations. For the law to work, we can’t just brush aside potential violations. I don’t take lightly making a referral of this nature, but ignoring this behavior will just invite more of it in the future," Grassley said in a statement. Grassley added in...

Porn star lawyer Michael Avenatti suffered two court losses on Monday, including one that saw a judge order him to pay $4.85 million to a former lawyer who argued he was underpaid. Shortly after that ruling from a California judge, another judge ruled that Avenatti and his staff must be evicted from their suite office at Fashion Island mall after they missed four months worth of rent payments. In the first case, Superior Court Judge Dennis Landin said Avenatti had to personally pay the $4.85 million because he guaranteed a settlement with former employee, Jason Frank, the Associated Press reported....

Michael Avenatti has backed off his pledge to hold a "resistance" rally in Texas on the same day President Trump holds one for Sen. Ted Cruz in Houston. As the Trump campaign announced that more than 100,000 requests were made for tickets for the event Monday, Avenatti told Geoff Bennett of NBC News that a scheduling conflict prevented him from holding a counter-rally. "It's Beto's show because it's his race," Avenatti was quoted as saying, referring to Cruz's Democratic challenger, Rep. Beto O'Rourke. Early last month, Avenatti, who is the lawyer to porn star Stormy Daniels, said he would hold...

As Michael Avenatti floats a 2020 presidential run, court records reveal the lawyer and his companies owed millions in unpaid taxes and judgments. ... questions over his finances remain—and could become a sore spot on the campaign trail, as creditors pursue him and his former companies. Both the Eagan Avenatti law firm and a shuttered Seattle coffee chain, which Avenatti says he no longer owns, owe millions in unpaid taxes and judgments.. ... Tax liens filed in Orange County also show that Avenatti has personally owed at least $1.2 million in federal taxes on top of the corporate debts. ......

California federal judge’s ruling against Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit also ordered her to pay Trump’s legal fees. This means that the useful-idiot Trump “resisters” who donated to Stormy's crowdfunding are paying Trump’s legal fees. HA HA HA HA HA!

President Trump on Tuesday referred to the pornographic film actress Stephanie Clifford as “Horseface” in a Twitter post, as he gloated about a recent court ruling in his favor. In his tweet, Mr. Trump was referring to a federal judge’s decision to dismiss a defamation suit filed by Ms. Clifford, who is known professionally as Stormy Daniels. The judge also ordered Ms. Clifford to pay the president’s related legal fees. The president’s use of the term “horseface” was jarring, even though he has previously used similar disparaging language to describe women who challenge him. But it could also prove problematic...