You can't go into Youngstown, Ohio, and tell everybody they're going to be retrained and go work for Google or Apple.
Michael Avenatti
Frankly, I am shocked at the complete level of incompetence exhibited by lawyer after lawyer for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump.
What you see with me is what you get. I don't have to conduct a poll to figure out what I'm going to tell somebody. I don't have to hire some consultant to come up with some cute catch phrase. I just call it like I see it.
I am blessed to have an incredible staff of other highly competent paralegals, lawyers, and others that I have surrounded myself with. This is not a one-man band by any stretch.
I'm used to litigating against incredibly competent, high-quality lawyers that are very good chess players.
I'm not an expert on journalistic standards. I want to be clear on that.
For good or for bad, I'm a risk taker. I like high-stakes, high-reward type situations.
I'm not avoiding Fox, but they don't seem to want me to be on their shows much. I can't understand that.
I completely disagree with the idea of eliminating ICE. We should not eliminate ICE: it's like saying we should eliminate the police force.
We have, in this country, this Puritan, hypocritical, nonrealistic view of sex that is entirely different than the view, for instance, in Western Europe.
Just like there is nothing wrong with calling out unethical attorneys, there is nothing wrong with calling out unethical journalists.
Michael Cohen is one of the world's greatest evidence hoarders. He rarely threw anything away.
Michael Cohen is a criminal, and he deserves the max penalty.
Initially, I was very skeptical about getting involved because I, much like many Americans, had preconceived notions about Stormy Daniels and her motivations and what she is all about.
This argument that somehow I'm chasing the limelight is a bunch of nonsense, and it's offensive - highly offensive - to me.
I can't remember the last time I was able to just chill.
I'm not under obligation to provide information to everyone that wants it when they want it.
Donald Trump is either going to resign, he's going to be removed from office by impeachment, or I'm going to beat him in 2020. But one way or the other, he's not going to serve a second term.
I believe that our party, the Democratic party, must be a party that fights fire with fire.
Being president isn't a solo position. You surround yourself with highly qualified people that are smarter about issues than you are. But that's not enough. You then have to listen to them.
When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight... Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.
I'm not going to opine as to whether I think a particular candidate can beat Donald Trump or not.
Anybody that says I don't have any experience in immigration cases doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.
Let's face it - Donald Trump is a very, very good con man.
It's pretty clear that a lot of people in politics see me as a threat, and they should, because I am.
I'm a mercenary. That's what people hire me for, and I don't apologize for it.
I have a lot of notoriety now because of the Stormy Daniels case. I was less well known before outside of legal circles.
I would not describe myself as a Trump hater.
I think that if the Democratic Party focuses on nominating who will make the best president, that's going to be a critical mistake. There's only one question at the end of the day, and that question is, Can the potential nominee beat Donald Trump?
The attorney doesn't decide what to do; the client ultimately decides what to do.
Frankly, sometimes you have to go into the belly of the beast, as they say, and take on some of these individuals even if they're entirely unprofessional, like Tucker Carlson.
I'm a student of the law.
I ended up working on over 150 political campaigns in 42 states; over a third of those were for Republicans. I want to be clear about that. Approximately two-thirds were for Democrats, so, I worked on both sides of the aisle, across the United States.
I don't generally go after people offensively, but if somebody comes after me, I will absolutely meet them every step of the way and then some, no question.
Over the years, Democrats have had a lot of very talented individuals, but they have lacked fighters.
I think I've always acted confident, even at times I haven't been confident.
A lot of people have sought to place me in the position as the leader of the anti-Trump movement. That is not something that I have aspired to. It's not something that I've requested.
I think Donald Trump is a very unique candidate.
Donald Trump - you can say a lot of negative things about him, and I do, and I think he's completely unprepared for the office, and he lacks the fabric to lead this nation, but if there's one thing that he understands, it's branding and how to navigate the media.
I would like to think people would take me seriously.
I can be aggressive at times. I didn't get to where I am by being a pushover, O.K.?
I've been fighting for Davids versus the Goliaths for 18 years, my entire career.
Women face a very, very difficult time when they run for higher elected office, unfortunately, especially against a guy like Donald Trump.
In L.A., anytime a show is a success, people come out of the woodwork claiming they had the idea first.
The kind of work I do, there's usually a lot of money on the line; there are jobs on the line. It's not a world that lends itself to everyone being friendly all the time. We're certainly not sitting around holding hands singing 'Kumbaya.'
My past business dealings, my personal life, who I'm dating, the details of my divorce, other business matters that I've had - all that should be completely off-limits.
I'm not a celebrity. I'm a guy doing a job.
If you're going to be a fighter, and you're going to fight for the future of this country and lead the Democratic Party, then you can't be ducking fights.
We live in a different media age, a different realm if you will. And whoever is going to aspire to the presidency is going to need to understand what that realm entails and how to navigate it.
'The Washington Post' doesn't have to report on what I post on Twitter. CNN doesn't have to report on what I post on Twitter. All kinds of media outlets - they don't have to report on anything that I post on Twitter. Just like they don't have to report on all kinds of other things that other people post on Twitter.
