Politics

Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti arrested for alleged felony domestic violence

Key Points
  • Law enforcement told NBC that officers in the West Los Angeles division took an incident report involving an allegation of domestic violence from an unidentified victim.
  • Sources told NBC that Avenatti was arrested on a felony allegation.
  • Avenatti denies ever being "physically abusive," and called the felony allegation against him "completely bogus."
Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels, talks during a press conference outside federal courthouse in Los Angeles on July 27, 2018.
Jeff Daniels

Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti has been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Wednesday.

LAPD Tweet

Avenatti's arrest was on a felony allegation, multiple senior law enforcement officials told NBC News. The sources said they expect Avenatti to be booked into a local jail later Wednesday evening. The officials said officers in the West Los Angeles division took an incident report involving an allegation of domestic violence from an unidentified victim.

In a statement from his law office, Avenatti denied ever being "physically abusive," and called the felony allegation against him "completely bogus."

"I wish to thank the hard working men and woman of the LAPD for their professionalism they were only doing their jobs in light of the completely bogus allegations against me," he said. "I have never been physically abusive in my life nor was I last night. Any accusations to the contrary are fabricated and meant to do harm to my reputation. I look forward to being fully exonerated."

Avenatti's wife, Lisa Storie-Avenatti, denied reports that the alleged domestic violence incident pertained to her in a statement to Buzzfeed from her lawyers.

"My client and I have reviewed the TMZ article alleging that my client, Lisa Storie-Avenatti, has been injured and that Michael Avenatti has been arrested as a result of some incident that occurred between them. This article is not true as it pertains to my client," the statement said. "Ms. Storie-Avenatti was not subject to any such incident on Tuesday night. Further, she was not at Mr. Avenatti's apartment on the date that this alleged incident occurred. My client states that there has never been domestic violence in her relationship with Michael and that she has never known Michael to be physically violent toward anyone."

Avenatti has become one of President Donald Trump's most vocal critics, gaining visibility by representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Trump over a 2016 hush money payment.

Daniels did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Amid his rising celebrity, Avenatti has also said he's considered running for president against Trump in 2020. Avenatti, 47, has never held public office.

In August, Avenatti started The Fight PAC, a political action committee that he said would raise money to help fellow Democrats.

A representative for the PAC did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment regarding Avenatti's arrest.

The lawyer's presidential ambitions were tested in October amid a slew of troubling headlines. A judged ruled that Avenatti would have to pay his former law partner $4.5 million in back pay. He was also harshly criticized for remarks he made in a Time magazine profile in which he said the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee should be a white man.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, also referred Avenatti and one of his clients, Julie Swetnick, to the FBI for criminal prosecution. Grassley alleged that Avenatti and Swetnick made "materially false statements" about Brett Kavanaugh during the Senate confirmation hearing for the then-Supreme Court nominee.

Earlier Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported that the California State Bar recently cleared Avenatti of claims of professional misconduct during the period when the lawyer ran Tully's, a Seattle-based coffee chain.

— CNBC's Dan Mangan and Christina Wilkie contributed reporting.