Avenatti says he only faced federal charges because he took on Trump

Attorney Michael Avenatti says in a new interview that the charges he currently faces in New York and California, as well as others he says he is likely to be hit with in the coming days, are the product of him becoming a “threat” to President Trump.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Avenatti said that his activities had gone on without scrutiny until he emerged as the lawyer representing Stormy Daniels in her defamation case against the president.

{mosads}“The government didn’t begin to look at charging me criminally until I became one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threat, to the president of the United States, and anyone who thinks differently is a fool,” Avenatti said, according to Vanity Fair.

“I’m facing some very serious charges that could result in me spending a long time in a federal prison, and that’s most certainly keeping me up. I’m facing the power of the federal government, which is enormous,” he added in a previous conversation with the magazine.

In the article published Monday, Avenatti’s ex-girlfriend Mareli Miniutti described verbal and physical abuse she says she experienced at Avenatti’s hands, as well as accounts from members of the media who questioned the attorney’s temper and physical behavior during confrontations.

Miniutti described one instance in the piece in which she says an argument led to Avenatti allegedly dragging her across the floor of an apartment after growing verbally abusive.

Avenatti strongly denied those allegations and ripped the Vanity Fair article as “tabloid garbage” in a statement to The Hill, noting that he had been investigated for assault resulting in no charges being filed.

“The Vanity Fair piece is tabloid garbage — they never provided ample opportunity for me to comment in response to 80% of what was included and they failed to include numerous important facts that undercut their narrative. Chief among them was that I was never charged with assault even though there were three investigations,” he wrote in an emailed statement.