He’s thinking about running in 2020.
(Not entirely joking)
Fame and notoriety can be easily converted into money, if you want money. If you’re a washed up porn star, I’m sure you want money. And becoming famous is a great way to do so, if you don’t mind prostituting yourself. And hey, former porn star. So there you go.
And some people also enjoy being famous, which should come as no surprise. Your lawyer can represent your interests, and your interests might not always be “I want to end up with as much money as possible.” Take for example Cohen’s work for Trump. Trump handed Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money. Why would he do that? He ended up $130,000 poorer. Does that mean his lawyer did not represent his interests?
No, it means Trump valued Stormy Daniels shutting up more than he valued $130,000. So maybe Stormy Daniels values seeing herself talked about on TV all day every day more than she values some hypothetical cash payment. Or to put it a bit differently, the value of the cash settlement it would take to get her and her lawyer to fuck the fuck off is some really really big number now. And paying that amount wouldn’t bury the story anyway.
He’d do better with a female running mate. Got any suggestions?
Clearly, you feel quite strongly about something. As Eugene V. Debs is my witness, I have no idea what, perzackly.
what you meant by this? The part I underlined. It makes no sense (to me)
They’re worried that if they report, people might decide.
This.
He actually has a decent reason for the latest release with respect to his lawsuit. One hindrance to the lawsuit is Trump and Cohen protecting each other, so Avenatti has to drive them apart. By releasing evidence of potential influence peddling with the White House, the pressure is on Trump to distance himself from Cohen.
The public release of all this, rather than passing it on to Mueller, also puts pressure on Republicans to quit insisting this is some baseless witch hunt. Not that it will make a difference to the Republicans, but the guy’s an optimist.
Avennatti is already rich. He is responsible for one of the largest class action awards in history (now, before getting pedantic, the award was later reduced on appeal. Still, getting a jury to award $454 million is no joke. The point is that this guy was already a wealthy and successful person).
So, money isn’t needed. What next? Fame? Power? I can easily see why getting this chance would be checking those boxes.
I think this is spot on. Sometimes it’s more than money (even if the “more” is “importance”).
Also, Stormy is getting rich off of this. The publicity is just upping her in-person appearance fees (Denver residents, take note: I already see the marquee downtown promoting her arrival in the Summer). If you want to take a really cynical view, then all of this newsmaking is absolutely bettering his client.
Money isn’t needed. That’s quaint.
How many rich egotists have you ever heard of that reach a certain amount of money and decide it is enough? That they don’t need more?
Touché.
(I don’t think Avenatti is motivated by the billable hours he’s devoting here. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he wasn’t charging her a cent. Guy has already made millions. What he’s earning is fame and, with it, influence and power).
This is high drama on the civic stage, its kinda silly, and is also grimly important. This news should be out, it is important. Mr Avenatti revealing it almost rebuts itself, he already has a public presence as an enemy of Trump. It weakens credibility. To stretch for an analogy, if Jane Fonda had the Pentagon Papers, and personally revealed them, I would question her judgement. Again.
Its important that the truth be told, its also important that it be told effectively. We don’t seem to have a Walter Cronkite, these days. (Look him up, puppy Dopers. And get off my LAN…)
I think he’s star struck. He was already rich and famous, but now he’s on tv every time I turn around. I don’t even hardly watch tv and every time I walk through that room, I’m staring at his mug.
So tonight while making dinner, I see Avenatti talking to someone on msnbc ( forget her name, she’s on all the time, around dinner). And she asks Avenatti - why is he doing this with Cohen’s payment? how is all this helping his case?
Avenatti replied that this helps because (paraphrasing here) a) it goes to his opponent’s honesty & trustworthiness and b) it goes to Daniels’ argument that she thought she had an agreement with Donald Trump but Donald didn’t sign it, or (supposedly) pay for it, or (depending on who’s talking on what day) even know anything about it.
Avenatti’s revelations go to the question of who, precisely, paid Daniels, and why, and how, and was Donald involved in any this. That’s all relevant to Daniel’s argument that the supposed NDA agreement with Donald is invalid.
Annoying Donald is its own reward, of course, but there is a legal tactic behind all this.
The fact that a former porn star and her lawyer are making the revelations is perhaps legally less forceful, but it forever imprints “Trump=Sleazeball” in the public consciousness. What started as “Trump makes Bill Clinton look clean” has now morphed into “Trump makes Tonya Harding look honorable”.
Close. He told Rachel Maddow last night that his fee from Stormy Daniels was “de minimus.” He also mentioned a crowdfunding site that’s out there but he was insistent that there’s not some deep pocket in the shadows funding all of his time.
(Having been briefly under the mercy of a $200/hour lawyer on retainer I can appreciate how quickly the billable hours add up.)
Although the Michael A. vs Michael C. duel is the top spectacle today, I’m interested in the subthread question: Is (almost) everyone motivated primarily by money?
I was surprised to learn some Dopers think the answer is obviously Yes.
Sure, many businessmen are strongly motivated by money, and so are some celebrities, e.g. Paris Hilton, famous for being rich. But for a huge portion of humanity, wealth-seeking is very low priority once they have enough; indeed for many it’s low priority even if they don’t have enough. Although doctors are well-paid, I think many become doctors to have a proud benevolent career. This applies to some lawyers as well. I feel sad for people that don’t understand this.
I don’t know exactly what motivates Michael Avenatti. Fame? Public service? Fun? But he’s already extremely wealthy; I pity people who assume his primary goal must be further financial gain, whether immediate or long-term.
I’m not suggesting Avenatti will turn any income from Trump’s downfall over to charity, but that doesn’t mean money is his main motivation.
It’s so rare to see good performance art in the theater of law.
Bravo!
Are you kidding? I’d pay to see Trump’s downfall.
His intentions are to troll Team Trump into making mistakes to help win his present case and to promote himself to increase his profile and thereby his income for future cases. The relative importance of these goals is left as an exercise for the student.