Michael Avenatti accused the Wall Street Journal Tuesday of suppressing the story about the pre-election hush money paid to his client, Stormy Daniels until well after the election. CNBC:
As evidence for his accusation, Avenatti linked an attachment to his tweet showing email correspondence from before the 2016 election that appeared to be between Davidson and a Wall Street Journal reporter, as well an email purportedly from Dow Jones to Davidson.
Avenatti said the emails show the Journal failed to report the story before the election. “The documents are clear as day as to what happened. The WSJ had the story and sat on it until 14 months after the election, when they finally broke it.”
Avenatti told CNBC the documents he published “come directly from Mr. Davidson’s files. They are accurate and complete.” Asked for more details on how he obtained the emails, Avenatti said he “demanded” them and they were provided through “the rules of professional conduct.”
The Wall Street Journal broke the story in question on January 18, 2018. It’s claiming that it didn’t withhold anything.
“The claim we held any reporting regarding Stormy Daniels is false and outrageous,” said Steve Severinghaus, the senior communications director of Dow Jones, the company that publishes the Journal. Dow Jones is owned by News Corp, the global media conglomerate headed by Rupert Murdoch.
Avenatti has evidence that a Journal reporter reached out to Davidson on Oct. 21, 2016, asking to speak with him for a story. Davidson responded on November 2, days before the election, and threatened the reporter, saying that if the newspaper did not “refrain from publishing, distributing or disseminating any factually untrue and unsubstantiated information regarding me or my firm” it could face legal action. The Journal told Davidson that reporters would continue to investigate, despite his threats.
The story about James Comey re-opening the Clinton email investigation days before the election had quite an impact. It would be interesting to know what the Stormy Daniels’ bombshell, if dropped a few days before the election, would have accomplished.
