From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

Today, how did the lawyer for stormy Daniels become a household name and the new

face of democratic opposition to Donald Trump? The rise of Michael Avonotti.

It's Monday, August 6.

So in March of 2018, the world gets introduced to Michael Avonotti, who is an attorney from Los Angeles,

and has agreed to represent stormy Daniels, the adult film star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford,

in her lawsuit against the president in the United States.

Matt Shere recently profiled Avonotti for the Times magazine.

And at that time, she had a very straightforward aim. She wanted to get out of the undisclosure agreement

and be able to describe publicly her affair with Trump.

There was never any deal because the parties to the deal did not execute the agreement.

Your viewers know that if there's a written contract, if everybody doesn't sign it, there's no deal.

And in this situation, everybody did not sign the deal. Donald Trump never signed the deal.

The first thing that happens is he files papers trying to get the NDA invalidated and he immediately embarks on a press tour.

And I think, you know, when you talk to him about his decision to go so heavy on the media appearances,

he does have a rationale for it. It's not that I like being in front of the camera and the camera likes me.

It's that, well, look at the way that she is being depicted in the news.

She doesn't have a voice in this. She's not allowed to speak.

People are allowed to talk about her and to disparage her.

And Avonotti thought that the best way for her to kind of fight back for lack of a better term is to get herself out there

and to get her own story out there.

For sitting here talking to me today, you could be fined a million dollars.

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