Stormy Daniels' attorney and potential Democratic 2020 candidate Michael Avenatti has been arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence.
A woman filed a felony domestic violence report prior to his arrest, and the incident allegedly occurred on Tuesday, TMZ reports. Police have Avenatti in custody after the unidentified woman ran from him while he screamed that she had hit him first:
Our law enforcement sources say Avenatti was arrested Wednesday after a woman filed a felony DV report. We're told her face was "swollen and bruised" with "red marks" on both cheeks.
Our sources say the alleged incident occurred Tuesday, but there was a confrontation Wednesday between the two at an exclusive apartment building in the Century City area of L.A.
We're told during Wednesday's confrontation the woman ran out of the apartment building and was on the sidewalk on her cellphone with sunglasses covering her eyes, screaming on the phone, "I can't believe you did this to me."
We're told security brought her inside the building and Michael showed up 5 minutes later, ran into the building, chasing after her. He screamed repeatedly, "She hit me first." We're told he angrily added, "This is bulls***, this is f***ing bulls***."
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed on Twitter that Avenatti was arrested on the suspicion of domestic violence.
We can confirm that today LAPD Detectives arrested Michael Avenatti on suspicion of domestic violence. This is an ongoing investigation and we will provide more details as they become available.
— LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) November 15, 2018
During the confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Avenatti tweeted about the importance of respecting and hearing assault victims and women.
.@realDonaldTrump @LindseyGrahamSC @ChuckGrassley and all of the other GOP misogynists in the US Senate can attack me all they want. I will respond in kind and then some. These old white men still don’t understand that assault victims and women deserve respect and to be heard.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 28, 2018
He describes himself as a "fighter for good" in his Twitter bio.
The Washington Free Beacon reported in May that CNN and MSNBC had given Avenatti nearly $175 million in free media. He has appeared on television numerous times since then.
In September, Avenatti claimed he had received a "lot of encouragement" from top officials at the Democratic National Committee to run for president in two years. The founder of the pro-Clinton, "Ready for Hillary" super PAC said he would "absolutely" support Avenatti in the Democratic primary.
Avenatii's wife released a statement saying the woman involved is not her and that she has never known Avenatti to be physically abusive towards women.
https://twitter.com/passantino/status/1062856614657515520
UPDATE 7:13 p.m.: Story was updated to include the statement from Avenatti's wife, denying she was the woman involved in the alleged incident.
UPDATE 7:22 p.m.: Story was updated to include LAPD's confirmation that Avenatti was arrested.