Michael Avenatti Locks Twitter After 4Chan User Claims Girlfriend Pranked Him, Posed As Third Kavanaugh Accuser
STUDIO CITY (CBSLA) — Stormy Daniels' attorney who recently threw himself into the fray over allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh is denying he was pranked by a woman claiming to be another one of the embattled Supreme Court nominee's accusers.
Michael Avenatti's twitter was "protected" Tuesday after a user on the internet forum 4Chan posted that his girlfriend was the woman accusing Kavanaugh and his friends of getting her and other girls drunk before trying to sexually assault them as teens. The user said his girlfriend called Avenatti on a burner phone, and that both also pretended to be a person who could corroborate the story, CBS News reported.
Avenatti told CBS News there was no truth to the post, saying, "There's nothing wrong! I had to go online to look, and I read this post, and I'm laughing. None of that happened. It's a complete fabrication. There's zero truth to it. When I say zero truth, I mean zero truth. Not a single thing in that is true."
Users often post anonymously on 4Chan, and the site has been linked to alt-right and racist speech, as well as conspiracy theories like "QAnon."
Avenatti was in Los Angeles Monday representing his client, born Stephanie Clifford, in a defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump. However, outside the courthouse, he turned reporters' attention to a yet unnamed woman who claims she is a "contemporary" of Kavanaugh. He went on to warn members of the Senate Judiciary Committee overseeing Kavanaugh's confirmation and Trump to not discount his client, adding she is a credible person who has worked in different capacities for the federal government.
"To the individuals on the committee, like Mr. Grassley, to Donald Trump, and to his surrogates, I say this: You better be very, very careful before you come after my client and call her a liar or engage in some of the other despicable conduct that you've engaged in relating to Dr. Ford over the last four to five days," Avenatti said Monday.
The alleged prank now calls into question a third allegation of sexual misconduct and assault against Kavanaugh. Palo Alto University Professor and research psychiatrist Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of pinning her down and attempting to sexually assault her during a high school party in the 1980s. A second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, claims Kavanaugh exposed himself and made her touch his penis during a party when they were both students at Yale.
The New York Times passed on Ramirez's story before it was published by The New Yorker over the weekend. The Times claims neither publication "were able to find witnesses acknowledging the episode," though The New Yorker said a fellow unnamed student heard about her alleged assault in the days following the incident.
In an interview with Fox News Monday, Kavanaugh categorically denied ever having sexually assaulted anyone. He bolstered his claim by saying he remained a virgin until well after high school.
After initially requesting the FBI look into her allegations, Ford decided to speak to the judiciary committee Thursday morning. The committee said it would be voting on Kavanaugh's confirmation Friday.