Ex-Darling of the Media: Michael Avenatti Charged Again as a Fraudster

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Jim Kavanagh, the editor of thepolemicist.net. Michael Avenatti, the attorney who rocketed to fame by representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Trump, was charged yesterday with defrauding her of $300,000. Avenatti was charged earlier this year in New York on multiple felony counts of trying to extort the Nike shoe company of $25 million. And he faces yet more felony charges in Los Angeles, accusing him of defrauding other clients. However, at the height of his public notoriety last year, he was hailed as a hero by the corporate media and even established an exploratory committee and said he wanted to run for president. A federal judge ruled against President Trump’s request to block Deutsche Bank from complying with Congressional subpoenas seeking his financial records. Meanwhile, the president angrily walked out of a White House meeting with Congressional Democrats yesterday, saying that any infrastructure bill was dead until Democrats stop all investigations of him. Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter, a columnist for CounterPunch, and a contributor to Businessweek, The Nation, Extra! and Salon.com, at ThisCantBeHappening.net, joins the show. Voting began today in the most divisive European parliamentary elections in a generation. The UK and the Netherlands vote today, while the remaining 26 European Union nations vote Sunday to allot the parliament’s 751 seats. All eyes are on the UK election, where the far-right Brexit Party has a commanding lead in the polls. The most recent poll shows the ruling Conservatives winning just seven percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May abandoned her plan to offer a vote on holding a second referendum after backlash from her party. Brian and John speak with Lee Stranahan, the host of Radio Sputnik’s Fault Lines, which you can hear every day, Monday through Friday from 7:00-10:00 am. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive victory in elections yesterday, thumping the opposition Congress Party of Rahul Gandhi, and cruising to another five-year term. Modi is one of the most powerful and divisive figures in modern India, and his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is poised to win at least 300 seats, far beyond the 272 seats necessary to govern. Dr. Ania Loomba, a professor of literature at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in postcolonial studies, joins the show. Veterans for Peace is Thursday’s regular segment about the contemporary issues of war and peace that affect veterans, their families, and the country as a whole. Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and war resister who has been a peace and solidarity activist for almost 50 years, currently as national president of Veterans for Peace, joins the show. Thursday’s weekly series “Criminal Injustice” is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show. A regular Thursday segment deals with the ongoing militarization of space. As the US continues to withdraw from international arms treaties, will the weaponization and militarization of space bring the world closer to catastrophe? Brian and John speak with Prof. Karl Grossman, a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York, College at Old Westbury and the host of a nationally-aired television program focused on environmental, energy, and space issues, and with Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.