During that same appearance, Avenatti couldn’t help himself and took a shot at Cohen, who in addition to being a fellow lawyer is also a party to litigation in which Avenatti represents the plaintiff. In reference to Hannity’s statement that he gave Cohen $10 to retain him for legal advice, Avenatti quipped, “he overpaid by $9 if that’s true.” I cringed as I watched an attorney on national television act like an eight-year-old on the playground hurling insults. Avenatti also recently made a dig at Cohen’s law school. It’s astonishing to me that an attorney would behave this way, particularly an attorney in the national spotlight.
In his continued plight to make something out of nothing, when it was revealed that Cohen would invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege to remain silent in civil litigation, Avenatti tweeted it was a “stunning development.” As I explained on Twitter, however, this is hardly stunning. When faced with a criminal investigation, nearly anyone—whether that person is a lawyer for the president or O.J. Simpson—is going to invoke the Fifth Amendment in a civil proceeding.
But who cares about basic legal norms. Avenatti has got to get those favs and retweets on Twitter, right?
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