Grassley Asks For Another DOJ Investigation, Calls Michael Avenatti ‘An Outright Fraud’
Michael Avenatti is in the crosshairs of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) again. The Senate Judiciary Committee Chair issued a second referral to the DOJ for Avenatti, whose client list includes Stormy Daniels and Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick.
Grassley says that Avenatti issued a fraudulent sworn statement to the Judiciary Committee earlier this month. Grassley already previously referred Avenatti and Swetnick to the DOJ for providing false statements of Congress, obstruction a Senate investigation and conspiracy, according to CBS News.
Julie Swetnick was the third woman to accuse then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Specifically, Swetnick accused Kavanaugh of participating in gang rapes.
Avenatti and Swetnick issued a sworn statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee about Kavanaugh. Grassley says that statement “appears to be an outright fraud.”
Grassley’s referral has been prompted by Swetnick’s testimony, included in the statement issued to the Senate Judiciary Committee by Avenatti. Grassley used an interview with NBC News for the basis of his referral, according to NBC.
In the interview, Swetnick contradicted her own sworn testimony. A second woman whose testimony was included in the statement and whose identity is anonymous also had inconsistencies in her story. This woman said she witnessed Kavanaugh spiking the punch at parties in order to take advantage of women sexually.
However, that’s not the same statement she gave in her NBC interview. She also said she did not know Swetnick in high school, and they did not become friends for years after graduation.
In the interview, the anonymous woman said that she never saw Kavanaugh act inappropriately toward a woman. She did describe a culture of heavy drinking and identified Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge in this group.
Avenatti already responded to Grassley’s first referral, saying “let the investigation into Kavanaugh and his lies begin,” as reported by the Inquisitr.
In the statement, the anonymous woman says she witnessed Kavanaugh being “overly aggressive and verbally abusive to girls.”
She later recanted her statements to NBC, saying “it is incorrect that I saw Brett spike the punch. I didn’t see anyone spike the punch…I was very clear with Michael Avenatti from day one.”
Michael Avenatti has been publicly adversarial with Donald Trump, and the two have engaged in multiple back-and-forth arguments on Twitter. As the legal counsel for Stormy Daniels, Avenatti is well-known to Donald Trump.
The lawyer also has political aspirations. Recently, he’s said multiple times that he may run against Trump in 2020 and has issued a list of where he stands on key political issues.
