High-profile lawyer and Donald Trump critic Michael Avenatti has denied rumours that circulated Tuesday suggesting that he was pranked by a 4Chan user who claimed to have tricked him into thinking he had found new allegations against Brett Kavanaugh.
In the 4Chan post, a user claimed that a girlfriend called Avenatti on a “burner phone” and said she was an alumni of a private school — and that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge had assaulted her.
The post later claimed that Avenatti had “disabled his Twitter” — his account’s tweets were protected on Tuesday.
Coverage of Michael Avenatti on Globalnews.ca:
Avenatti has said he’s representing a client who has levelled allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, who is the U.S. president’s pick to fill an empty spot on the Supreme Court.
Avenatti previously sent an email to the chief counsel for nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
In it, he alleged that there was “significant evidence of multiple house parties in the Washington, D.C. area during the early 1980s during which Brett Kavanaugh, Mark Judge and others would participate in the targeting of women with alcohol/drugs in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them.”
Avenatti also noted an entry in Kavanaugh’s yearbrook that said, “FFFFFFFourth of July,” saying he believed it meant “Find them, French them, Feel them, Finger them, F*** them, Forget them.”
READ MORE: 6 — the number of times Brett Kavanaugh denied sexually assaulting anyone in a Fox News interview
Speaking to Politico on Tuesday, Avenatti said he determined that a woman making the allegation against Kavanaugh was “100 per cent credible.”
“We’ve received over 3,000 inquiries in the last six months from people with all kinds of crazy stories and fabrications,” he said.
“I’ve heard it all. I’ve seen it all. Like we don’t vet clients. Give me a break.”
The lawyer also denied being pranked in an interview with CBS.
“There’s nothing wrong!” he said.
“I had to go online to look, and I read this post, and I’m laughing. None of that happened. It’s a complete fabrication. There’s zero truth to it. When I say zero truth, I mean zero truth. Not a single thing in that is true.”
Avenatti went on to say that his client is not reconsidering coming forward with her allegation against Kavanaugh.
She’s “remaining strong,” the lawyer said.
READ MORE: Republican Congressman suggests Kavanaugh shouldn’t be disqualified even if allegations are true
Avenatti has previously said that his client will come forward soon.
This Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford is expected to testify at a public hearing about an allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when he was in high school.
The Senate Judiciary Committee also scheduled a vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation for Friday morning, the day after Ford testifies.
For his part, Kavanaugh six times denied ever sexually assaulting anyone in a Monday interview with Fox News.
“I’ve never sexually assaulted anyone. Not in high school, not ever,” he said.