Perhaps the most surprising moment in Anderson Cooper's 26 minutes of Stormy Daniels reporting on Sunday's 60 Minutes was Cooper telling viewers that her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, that he had a Democratic background. Avenatti boasted that was very old news. Fact check: It's not.
ANDERSON COOPER: In college and law school, you did opposition research for Democratic political operative Rahm Emanuel. Some people looking at that will say you're politically motivated,
MICHAEL AVENATTI: I haven't done anything in politics in over twenty years.
COOPER: But this is not the usual case you take on. You were a former Democratic operative. And you`re talking about deposing the President. That sounds political.
AVENATTI: No, it sounds righteous.
COOPER: How so?
AVENATTI: Because my client is credible. She's telling the truth.
Avenatti is not credible on the "20 years" line. A quick check of federal campaign donations records shows that Avenatti made a pile of donations to Democrats for president in the 2004 cycle.
-- $2,000 to John Kerry for President in May of 2004
-- $1,500 to John Edwards for President ($1000 in February 2004, $500 in March 2003)
-- $1,500 to Dick Gephardt for President (three $500 donations in 2003)
He gave $1,000 to ultraliberal Sen. Barbara Boxer in home state of California in 2007.
A quick check of California campaign donation records also shows that Avenatti made a pile of donations (almost $6,000) in 2005 and 2006, all to Democrats, including Antonio Villaraigosa for Mayor of Los Angeles and Mark DeSaulnier for Assembly, who is now in the House of Representatives. Avenatti also gave $5,000 to the Consumer Attorney Issues PAC.
If he'd said he hadn't been a Democrat donor in over ten years, that wouldn't be so easily disproved.
