A lawyer is asking a judge in Los Angeles to issue an order barring Michael Avenatti from making public statements about a lawsuit. | Richard Drew/AP Cohen lawyer seeks gag order against Avenatti The judge is asked to block the 'media circus.'

Attorney Michael Avenatti's months-long publicity tour attacking President Donald Trump and Trump attorney Michael Cohen could be brought to an abrupt end soon if a federal judge agrees to a new request for a gag order against the ubiquitous Avenatti.

A lawyer for Cohen, Brent Blakely, asked a judge in Los Angeles Thursday to issue an order barring Avenatti from making public statements about the lawsuit Avenatti's client, porn star Stormy Daniels, filed against Trump and Cohen in March in a bid to void what she called a $130,000 "hush money" deal to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with Trump more than a decade ago.


Blakely said an avalanche of inflammatory public comments by Avenatti—including at least 121 TV appearances and 439 tweets—is tainting the court proceeding.

"As this Court has probably already surmised ... Avenatti’s actions are mainly driven by his seemingly unquenchable thirst for publicity. Mr. Avenatti’s publicity tour, wherein he routinely denigrates Mr. Cohen with claims of alleged criminal conduct, is contrary to the California Rules of Professional Conduct, likely to result in Mr. Cohen being deprived of his right to a fair trial, and threatens to turn what should be a solemn Federal Court proceeding into a media circus," Blakely wrote in an application filed with U.S. District Court Judge James Otero.

Blakely noted that when a federal judge in New York handling litigation over records the FBI seized from Cohen warned Avenatti that if he joined that litigation as an attorney he would have to cease his public statements, Avenatti chose to drop his request to enter that case. Avenatti then embarked on a fresh round of media interviews "with renewed vigor," Blakey wrote.

Even before the motion was formally filed, Avenatti fired back on Twitter.

"We just learned that Mr. Cohen and his atty, Brent Blakely, are going to file a motion seeking to have the court issue a gag order preventing me & others from providing info & docs to the media and the public. They want it all hidden. Is this ok? Will the media permit it?" Avenatti asked. "The motion for a gag order is a complete joke and baseless. Mr. Cohen and Brent Blakely can’t deal with the truth, the facts, and the law, so they have to resort to unethical, meritless motions. This must be their birthday present to Mr. Trump."

Avenatti said on Friday morning on MSNBC that, more broadly, it was an attack on the First Amendment.

"It's not just an attack on me, it's an attack on every source, every individual who provides information, whether it be in this case or others, and indirectly it's an attack on the media," he said.

Blakely's application for the gag order says Trump's attorney, Charles Harder, advised that the president "will not oppose" issuance of the gag order. There's an indication in the court filing that Harder submitted "revisions" to the motion filed Thursday, but it's unclear what those were.

Blakely's motion argues that Avenatti can continue to act as an attorney in the suit before Otero or can mount a media campaign on the subject, but can't do both.

"While the press and other third-parties are free to attend all of the formal proceedings before the District Court and to report anything that happens, the attorneys are bound by California’s Rules of Professional Conduct. In the present case, Plaintiff’s counsel, in a quest for his own personal notoriety, has shown a complete disregard of the ethical obligations he is sworn to abide by as an officer of the court," Blakely added.

No immediate hearing was set on Blakely's request, but he indicated he'll seek to have the judge act on it quickly.

This article tagged under: Michael Avenatti