Michael Avenatti: There's much more coming from my whistleblowers on the border
- Attorney Michael Avenatti told Business Insider on Tuesday to expect much more coming from his whistleblowers on the border.
- Avenatti provided MSNBC's Rachel Maddow with such information for her Monday show.
- "Since last night's appearance, I've already had two additional whistleblowers reach out to me last night and this morning," he said.
Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, told Business Insider on Tuesday that the whistleblower information he provided to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday about President Donald Trump's family-separation policy at the border is just a "small fraction" of what's to come.
Avenatti said that he has compiled "evidence, videos, and audio recordings" that he'll be releasing in the coming days. The information was provided to him by clients who retained him in relation to the border crisis.
On Maddow's Monday night show, she played footage shot by a former employee of a detention center where immigrant children are held. In the footage, a worker can be heard cautioning children in Spanish against talking to the press, saying such action could jeopardize their cases.
Avenatti is providing counsel to whistleblowers from law enforcement agencies and detention centers who have dealt with the roughly 2,000 children who were separated from their parents at the border as a result of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy
The policy led to the children being separated from their families as the Trump administration opted to prosecute their parents for illegal entry, a misdemeanor. Trump last week issued an executive order putting that policy on pause as it was met with intense backlash, but the administration has yet to reunite all of the children with their families.
"Frankly, every time I appear on television, we get more," Avenatti said of information provided to him by whistleblowers. "So that's what the people that have been critical of my media strategy don't get either through ignorance or just because they're so biased. The reason why I utilized this strategy and not only Stormy's case, but in connection with the border case is because it works. People see me on television, they want me to serve as their lawyer, and they provide information and documents for us to use."
"You saw last night on Rachel Maddow which was just a small fraction of the total information that we already have," he continued. "And since last night's appearance, I've already had two additional whistleblowers reach out to me last night and this morning."
Avenatti gets involved at the border
Avenatti jumped into the border crisis earlier this month. He told The Washington Examiner that he was "contacted about a family from California who had a relative, a mother, that had been detained with her child and had her child taken from her, and they asked us to get involved with the case."
"And then, I sent out a tweet announcing that I was getting involved with the fight," he said. "We've now been retained by over 70 children, 60 mothers."
And in the days that followed, Avenatti has repeatedly teased the information he claims to have and promises to soon release.
"There are few things more gratifying in my role as an advocate than when a whistleblower trusts me with explosive information (docs, images, etc.) and looks to me to ensure it is released for maximum impact for the public good," he posted. "Today is another such day."