It's been a busy 24 hours for Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti, who began responding to Uncle Rudy's bombshell Wednesday night, then did CBS This Morning Thursday, and finally parked himself in a chair at MSNBC as news broke that Michael Cohen's phones were being monitored by federal investigators weeks before the FBI raid on Cohen's premises.
Bottom line: Avenatti is pretty psyched.
"The likelihood of us ultimately having a chance to depose the president went up exponentially," Avenatti told MSNBC of Giuliani obliterating the original narrative that Trump knew nothing of the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
"We look forward to that day when someone has to raise their right hand and actually testify under oath as to what happened here, as opposed to having one of their surrogates who isn't ready for primetime go out on Fox & Friends ... and spew nonsense," he added.
Of course, the nonsense Giuliani spewed wasn't limited to his Wednesday appearance. He returned to the airwaves Thursday morning to add a little context for the October 2016 hush-money payment to Daniels over her sexual encounter with Trump.
"Imagine if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton."
Yeah, imagine that—could have really disrupted Trump's election. So much for that $130K not being related to the campaign.
In total, Giuliani's damage led Avenatti to a couple of conclusions.
"There is zero doubt in my mind that Michael Cohen will ultimately be charged with very serious crimes and there's zero doubt that he’s going to roll over on the president," he said. Also, "I don't think this president is going to serve out his term," a prediction he has made before.
Asked about possible crimes, Avenatti said he could only speak in “hypotheticals” before offering these possibilities:
"Campaign finance conspiracies not to report the payment or have it routed or paid in a certain way so it stays off the books to avoid detection or disclosure—those could be a couple of felonies. Bank fraud, money laundering, a whole host of things."
Yet despite all the huge (and possibly criminal) implications facing Trump, Cohen, and their inner circle, Avenatti is still stuck on Trump's continued inability to simply tell the truth. As one reporter soft-pedaled Trump's actions, Avenatti objected.
"Let's stop using words like ‘Seems to suggest,’ or ‘May be contrary,’” he said, "Let's call it what it is. It’s a lie. These are repeated lies to the American people. The president stood on Air Force One and lied to the American people. Let's call it what it is. Let's not sugar coat this."