Former attorney Michael Avenatti predicted Tuesday that former President Trump will be convicted in the New York hush money trial slated to begin next week.
In an interview from prison, Avenatti told MSNBC’s Ari Melber that he believes Trump will be convicted in the hush money trial when asked what he thinks is “wrong” with the case.
“You know, I think the case has a lot of problems. Now that does not —I don’t mean to suggest that that means that Trump will not be convicted because I think he will be convicted,” Avenatti said.
The former president is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a payment his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, made to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump.
Avenatti, who was Daniels’ former attorney, is currently serving time in prison for stealing book proceeds from his former client. An appeals court last month held up a 2022 ruling that sentenced him to four years in prison and required him to pay $148,000 in restitution and forfeit the roughly $297,000 that prosecutors say he stole from Daniels.
Avenatti said in the interview that the case should not be tried in state court.
“And I think it rests on a legally tenuous theory, namely that the crime that was attempted to be covered up was a federal election crime. I think that could be a problem potentially on appeal for the state,” he said.
The former attorney then reiterated that he thinks Trump will be convicted, but that it may not hold up once he likely appeals.
“And I think it’s going be tested on appeal when Trump is convicted. And again, I think he will be convicted. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going hold up,” he said.
“I believe if you’re going bring a case against a sitting president or a former president, who tens of millions of people support, especially in today’s day and age with how divided we are, I think it needs to be a rock-solid, lock tight, nearly perfect prosecuted case. Because otherwise, you run a huge risk as to what it’s going mean for the country,” he added.
The hush money trial is still scheduled to begin April 15 after a New York judge rejected Trump’s legal team’s arguments to delay the trial even further.
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