Lawyer Michael Avenatti is being accused of trying to trick people into donating to his political action committee (PAC) by stumping for Democratic Party nominee Beto O’Rourke, who is running in the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate race, the Daily Beast reports.
The spotlight-loving attorney is best known for representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her case against Donald Trump, and Julie Swetnick, the third woman to accuse now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
Avenatti, who continues to make regular appearances on cable news programming is also eyeing a potential 2020 presidential campaign.
The lawyer often takes to Twitter to advocate on behalf of his clients, as well as promote his own political views.
Ironically, it was Avenatti’s prolific Twitter use that has gotten him in trouble. Under the pretense of raising money for Beto O’Rourke — who, according to the Daily Beast, is breaking fundraising records — linked to Democratic donation platform ActBlue. The website appeared to be an O’Rourke donation page, but it was not.
The fine print on the very page Avenatti linked noted that half of all donations would go to the lawyer’s Fight PAC.
Twitter caught on almost immediately, prompting Avenatti to delete the tweet.
Brendan Fischer, the director of Federal Election Commission reform programs at the Campaign Legal Center discussed Avenatti’s fundraising tactic with the Daily Beast .
“It is pretty skeezy. If Avenatti wanted to raise funds for Beto O’Rourke’s campaign, he could just share a link to the Beto for Senate donation page…some viewers could miss the fine print disclosing that their donation would be split with Avenatti’s PAC.”
In response to widespread criticism, Avenatti said that Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren “do the same thing.”
“It wasn’t worth the nonsense that resulted from people that don’t understand how common this is,” Avenatti said.
“Avenatti’s tweet gave viewers the impression their donation would support Beto for Senate, [but] some viewers could miss the fine print disclosing that their donation would be split with Avenatti’s PAC.” https://t.co/3fUvecH1gJ
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) October 12, 2018
This is not the first time Avenatti has found himself embroiled in scandal.
As detailed by a previous Inquisitr report, journalists, politicians, and pundits blamed Avenatti for Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, arguing that the lawyer — along with his client Julie Swetnick — had helped confirm Trump’s pick to the Supreme Court by bringing up unfounded accusations, thereby ruining the credibility of other Kavanaugh accusers.
Echoing this sentiment, the White House said that Avenatti had brought up things to “an absurd point,” inadvertently helping Brett Kavanaugh get confirmed.
Beto O’Rourke raised nearly $40 million last month, according to The Texas Tribune , tripling Republican incumbent Ted Cruz’s fundraising totals for the past three months.