I am not sure what to say about the Michael Avenatti domestic violence arrest. It is the kind of surreal schadenfreude normally reserved for happy dreams that you long for when you wake up; yet, it is all real (in the press anyway). However, I am fairly certain that regardless of whether it ends up being an increasingly common right wing political hoax — which would seem strategically intended to disprove Avenatti’s ‘believe all survivors‘ narrative — or if in fact he did commit felony domestic violence as the LAPD alleges — it is guaranteed to be ironic and damaging for Michael’s brand (and totally in line with the many ‘plagues’ which have befallen him of late for his apparent hubris). In the end, the Michael Avenatti case will prove either 1.) that all accusers cannot be believed and/or 2.) that Michael Avenatti is a dangerous advocate for women and a hypocrite.
Update: We can confirm that Michael Avenatti (DOB: 02-16-71) was booked this afternoon on a felony domestic violence charge (273.5 PC). His bail is set at $50,000.
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) November 15, 2018
While Michael Avenatti claims to be a fan of due process, he was only apparently a fan of it in the context of using calls for it to derail the timely pre-election confirmation of (the apparently falsely accused) Brett Kavanaugh via Avenatti’s representation of the implausible claims of Julie Swetnick. Now, when Avenatti is accused of intimate partner violence by an as-of-now anonymous woman whose claims were apparently deemed credible and sufficient to result in his arrest in the course of an actual police investigation — Avenatti commands his audience not to believe the complainant — and instead places political blame on Jacob Wohl.
While Wohl denies the charges, and admitting to them would be truly foolish in an ‘intelligence’ context, his Twitter account’s “Surefire Intelligence Strikes Again” statement did give Avenatti plausible cover for his subsequent claims that this is all a political hitjob. This also led Avenatti to claim he was “coming after” Wohl — which prompted Wohl to file a police report against Avenatti. (No police action was taken after the report.) It would be hard to believe that Wohl could be so stupid as to disclose his involvement in a hoax which led to criminal charges for his ‘target’, but he has a history of strong past performance as an idiot — so I remain open minded that this is a ‘frame up’.
However, at the moment I am leaning towards the domestic violence allegations against Avenatti as being a legitimate grounds for arrest of the legal pugilist. While this privileged white man may not deserve the benefit of the doubt at this point, he certainly does deserve due process, and I hope he gets it. But I also really hope – and I imagine a lot of others do too – that he goes away now. There’s plenty of evidence to date that Michael Avenatti is not good at Trump’s game — and nobody wants him to be anyway. But in this case, the irony is a guarantee, so let due process run its course.
