Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz and Michael Avenatti, lawyer to porn star Stormy Daniels, clashed during a CNN segment Friday night over whose predictions about Trump-related investigations will be correct.
Dershowitz questioned whether Avenatti lawfully gained knowledge about taped conversations by President Trump’s former longtime lawyer Michael Cohen before the existence of such tapes was publicly known. Avenatti suggested there were recordings between Trump and Cohen for weeks before reports confirmed this week that at least one taped conversation of the two existed.
“It’s hard to imagine how he could have lawfully gotten ahold of those tapes,” Dershowitz said, suggesting Avenatti may have discussed the tapes with Cohen, without Cohen’s lawyer present, when the two ran into each other at a New York restaurant in recent months.
[Related: Secretly recorded Trump-Cohen tape was deemed privileged, then waived by White House: Report]
“I have been very, very accurate in my predictions, in the statements that I’ve made, and the facts. And the fact of the matter is on Sunday, you expressed considerable doubt as to whether I knew what I was talking about, and within 48 hours I was proven right,” Avenatti shot back.
Dershowitz reminded Avenatti that he predicted in May that Trump would eventually resign and that has yet to come true.
“That’s the one prediction that you really staked your reputation on, so your reputation will turn on whether he does resign or not,” Dershowitz said.
Avenatti then offered another prediction: “This information on the Trump Tower meeting, that’s not the best information Michael Cohen has. I can assure you of that.”
When pressed by Dershowitz about how he knew that, Avenatti said he needs to mind his own business.
“You need to back and concentrate on what invites you’re getting on Martha’s Vineyard,” Avenatti quipped, referring to Dershowitz saying his friends who summer on the Massachusetts island have shunned him over his defense of Trump.
“Well I’m about to head off to a party,” Dershowitz snapped back.
