Law and Patience

 Remember Michael Avenatti of Stormy Daniels fame? He filed suit claiming to have a disc that contained all the evidence necessary to take down Donald Trump. Brash and articulate, Avenatti found an eager audience among those who disliked Trump. For weeks he dominated the airwaves on CNN and MSNBC, always promising that damning information. As we know now, he had nothing. He is now generally regarded as a charlatan, has declared bankruptcy, and is facing numerous civil and criminal charges.

Avenatti stands for the proposition that when you have the evidence, you present it in court. When you don’t, you rely on the media and an audience base who wants to believe you, regardless of the facts.

Here are three other lawyers who have become household names: Rudy Guiliani, Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood. These lawyers have been the most vocal, and involved, in the cases to overturn the results of the presidential election. Like Avenatti, they, bolstered by numerous Trump tweets, claimed to have “insurmountable” evidence of fraud and election rigging on a national level. They too played to a receptive and eager audience, notably on FOX. Their evidence, it was claimed, would be produced “in the next couple of weeks.” We know the result – repeated promises of evidence, but losses in more than 60 cases. All three of these lawyers have been discredited and are facing a variety of monetary sanctions and professional disciplinary actions.

Guiliani, Powell and Wood also stand for the proposition that when you have the evidence, you present it in court. When you don’t, you rely on the media and an audience base who wants to believe you, regardless of the facts. As an aside, can you name three lawyers who have been defending these cases? Probably not, because their work was done where it belonged. In court.

The moral: if you want to hear things that support your point of view, tune into your media of choice. If you want evidence, you’ll need to be patient. It will come out in court. Tomorrow’s legal stuff: Dan Bongino, Parler and the suit against Amazon. [Written January 15, 2021]