Lawyer Michael Avenatti, who once considered running for president in 2020 and may spend the rest of his life in prison, issued a glowing endorsement on Thursday for former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I am extremely happy that @JoeBiden has decided to enter the race,” Avenatti tweeted just hours after Biden released his official announcement video on Thursday morning. “He offers Dems the very best chance in 2020, especially in key states. He has the fight, intelligence and fortitude to beat Trump and begin to make America, America again. He has my enthusiastic support.”
Earlier this month, Avenatti was hit with 36 federal charges alleging he stole millions of dollars from clients and failed to pay taxes, among other charges. If convicted on the charges, Avenatti would face 335 years in federal prison.
The three-dozen count indictment includes 10 counts of wire fraud, 19 counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and four counts of bankruptcy fraud, the oldest of which stems from 2010.
Attorney Michael Avenatti issued a glowing endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden in his 2020 bid for president
Avenatti, who once considered a presidential run, is facing 335 years behind bars in the three-dozen count indictment levied against him earlier this month, which includes allegations that he stole millions of dollars from clients
Biden released his announcement video on Thursday, formalizing his campaign to run for the Democratic Party’s 2020 nomination
Avenatti is scheduled to be arraigned on April 29 in United States District Court in Santa Ana, California.
In New York Avenatti is also facing four charges in an alleged extortion attempt against Nike.
Prosecutors say he contacted Nike threatening to expose a college pay-for-play scandal which Avenatti said would prove the company had been breaking the law by bribing young players to play for selected colleges and teams.
He allegedly told the company that instead of exposing it, he would conduct an ‘internal investigation’ for a $25 million fee. Nike reported him to the authorities instead.
Avenatti is best known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels in multiple legal cases involving President Donald Trump, especially in allegations of hush-money payments issued for her silence ahead of the 2016 elections regard her alleged affair with Trump.
Avenatti is best known for his role representing porn star Stormy Daniels (right) in her cases against President Donald Trump, including alleged hush-money payments
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said he sort of expected Avenatti to support Biden, but also figured a good choice for him would be Sen. Bernie Sanders because he says convicted felons should be able to vote
Avenatti, after rising to prominence over his involvement in Daniels’s cases against Trump, once floated running for president, but in December 2018 said he would not run for president “out of respect for my family.”
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, said that he half expected Avenatti to endorse ‘Creepy Uncle Joe,” but was a bit surprised he didn’t put his support behind Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders considering the recent charges against him.
“Part of me isn’t surprised to see Creepy Porn Lawyer endorse Creepy Uncle Joe for President,” Don Jr., tweeted Thursday. “I kind of assumed he would be supporting @BernieSanders, since Bernie wants to give incarcerated criminals the right to vote…Unless maybe @JoeBiden secretly supports that too???”
During a round of CNN town halls on Monday, some of the Democratic contenders weighed in on whether they thought incarcerated felons should be granted voting rights they were stripped of when convicted.
Sanders said he felt convicted felons should be granted the right to vote in U.S. elections.
“The right to vote is inherent to our democracy, yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Oh, that person did that, not going to let that person vote.’ You’re running down a slippery slope,” Sanders said during the town hall earlier this week.
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