‘Buckle Up, Buttercup’: Michael Avenatti Warns Giuliani and Trump Their Attacks on Cohen Make Them ‘Look Desperate’

Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels on Sunday ripped Rudy Giuliani over his attacks on former Donald Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen, inviting the president’s lawyer to “buckle up, buttercup.”

Giuliani on Saturday said Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis is “destroying” his client’s “creditability and usefulness as a witness” by leaking more of Cohen’s “surreptitiously recorded tapes.”

In response, Avenatti warned Giuliani he looks “desperate, [because] you are.”

“What are you and  Mr. Trump so afraid of if he did nothing wrong as you claim?” Avenatti wondered. “Releasing the info in no way damages Cohen’s credibility or usefulness as a witness. But it will severely damage Trump.”

“Are you denying that there were other hush payments made to as yet unnamed women in connection with the 2016 campaign?” Avenatti continued. “Asking for some friends... You better buckle up buttercup because Mr. Trump’s stupidity and disloyalty is about to catch up to him (and you).”

Giuliani on Saturday told Fox News his team believes Cohen’s released tape—which features audio of Trump acknowledging a payment to former Playmate model Karen McDougal—was tampered with.

“I have listened to many, many hours of tapes… and the man is a pathological manipulator, liar,” Giuliani told Chris Wallace. “I didn’t know that.”

Giuliani also insisted Cohen’s tapes prove “the president did nothing wrong.”