Alan Dershowitz appeared on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight on Monday, where he discussed claims that President Donald Trump committed a crime by directing payment to Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking about an affair she alleges she had with Trump. Carlson and Dershowitz looked to flip the narrative by accusing Daniels of wrongdoing, and her attorney Michael Avenatti is not having it.
“Is it unfair to describe this scenario as extortion? I saw I know something about your sex life … and unless you pay me money I’m going to reveal it. That seems like textbook extortion to me, why is it not?”
“It is absolutely classic extortion,” Dershowitz said, but he didn’t stop with Carlson’s general hypothetical situation, and went on to point the finger at Daniels in particular. “It’s shocking that the special counsel … isn’t looking into the extortion committed by at least the porn star whose lawyer obviously approached the candidate or the candidate’s people and threatened exposure. Otherwise, why would you pay? Just listen to the tape, the tape makes that clear, the tape that Cohen made unwittingly of President Trump. It’s clear that they were paying off an extortion in order to prevent these issues from coming out, for multiple reasons.”
Avenatti took issue with this narrative, and lashed out at Dershowitz on Twitter, referencing the latter’s former client, billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“You stop attacking my client Stormy Daniels with falsehoods and bogus claims of extortion (like you did today) and I will not start attacking your VERY close friend and client the infamous pedephile [sic] Epstein while asking what you knew and when,” Avenatti said.
.@AlanDersh – I’ll make you a deal. You stop attacking my client Stormy Daniels with falsehoods and bogus claims of extortion (like you did today) and I will not start attacking your VERY close friend and client the infamous pedephile Epstein while asking what you knew and when.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) December 11, 2018
Avenatti then explained how Dershowitz’s version of events was flat out wrong, an that what really happened was the other way around. Daniels never approached or threatened Trump, he said; it was Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen who initiated the discussion. The tape, Dershowitz mentioned? That wasn’t even about Daniels, Avenatti claimed.
.@AlanDersh – you embarrassed yourself with @TuckerCarlson tonight. Pls wake up and learn the facts, starting with 1) the widely disclosed tape does not relate to the payment to my client; 2) she never threatened disclosure; 3) Cohen approached her, NOT the other way around.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) December 11, 2018
Indeed, when the secretly recorded discussion of payments that had taken place between Cohen and Trump was first revealed, it was reported as being about former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who received payment from the publisher of the National Enquirer in a deal arranged by Cohen.
In an email to Law&Crime, Avenatti had additional harsh words for Carlson, as well as Trump himself:
Tucker Carlson is an embarrassment to real journalists everywhere. He is a partisan hack that makes no attempt at getting the facts right. And he is too frightened to have me on his show to educate him. The only extortion that occurred in 2016 was Trump extorting votes from hard working people by lying to them.
Note: This article has been updated with an additional statement from Michael Avenatti.
[Image via Mario Tama/Getty Images]
