Michael Avenatti, lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels and a potential 2020 presidential candidate, challenged President Trump to debate him on the allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Earlier Wednesday, Avenatti released a sworn affidavit from Julie Swetnick who claims she was gang raped at a party where Kavanaugh was present. Trump then called Avenatti a “third rate lawyer who is good at making false accusations.”
“Trump is a moron. He knows nothing about me or my client,” Avenatti tweeted Wednesday evening.
Trump also told reporters Wednesday that he was open to reconsidering pulling Kavanaugh’s nomination after one of the accusers appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, but simultaneously claimed the allegations were “all false to me.”
“He is trying to divert attention away from Julie as a smokescreen,” Avenatti said. “I challenge him to debate me regarding Kavanaugh and his accusers and our respective backgrounds. He will never agree because he is a coward and weak.”
Trump is a moron. He knows nothing about me or my client. He is trying to divert attention away from Julie as a smokescreen. I challenge him to debate me regarding Kavanaugh and his accusers and our respective backgrounds. He will never agree because he is a coward and weak.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 26, 2018
Kavanaugh faces several allegations of sexual misconduct. Christine Blasey Ford, who is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, along with Kavanaugh, claims Kavanaugh forced himself onto her at a high school party in the 1980s. Deborah Ramirez also accuses Kavanaugh of exposing himself to her at a college party in the 1980s at Yale University when they were students.
Swetnick, who graduated from Gaithersburg High School in Maryland, claimed Wednesday she saw Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge drink “excessively” and “engage in highly inappropriate conduct” while attending house parties in the Washington, D.C., area in the early 1980s.
She also claimed Kavanaugh and his friend Judge tried to drug girls so they could “then be ‘gang raped’” by multiple boys. She alleged that she was gang raped at a party where Kavanaugh was present.
Kavanaugh has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct.
