My theory on what is going on with Daniels and Avenatti.

[RDANGELO]

Mueller is conducting his investigation like any other criminal investigation; the information will come out when he is done, and he issues a report or releases indictments. The problem with that is that Trump and his surrogates are furiously trying to discredit the inquiry in order to end it or to substantially inhibit it. Somebody or someones with deep pockets are conducting their own investigation. The purpose is to influence public opinion to enable Mueller to complete his investigation on his own timetable. Avenatti is the vehicle for disseminating the information.

[skylucy]

1. Yes!

[dawg day]

2. Then there are the government workers-

... who have no loyalty to Trump (or any other president-- that's the way it's supposed to be), and experience every day what he's doing to hamper them doing their jobs-- giving their cabinet boss leave to transfer the most competent to do-nothing jobs, to restrict them from doing what they're supposed to do (research climate change, for example), and to commit discrimination.

They're mad. They're doing what's patriotic-- whistleblowing (secretly) by leaking revelations about his and his cabinet's criminality. It's pretty clear some of that Cohen banking info came from a Treasury dept investigation or maybe just a trove of bank document filings (yay for regulation, btw).

How did we get here? I have to keep reminding myself that the majority voted against this thuggish vandal. Then I despair, thinking why on earth do we have a president that the majority voted against? And why do we have a minority who could look at a man they wouldn't let water their plants (not that he'd ever do anything so kind) and decide he should be president?

[mr_lebowski]

3. Be nice if it was that elaborate, but he's basically just operating on the Steele Dossier's veracity

... and coming up aces every fucking time ... because guess what?

The dossier is ANYTHING BUT 'PHONY'. It's fucking NAILS, and he's reading from it ... and looking like a genius.

He's definitely seeming to be 'getting timely help' but I'm not sure it's from some rich benefactor, more like some of the remaining ACTUAL patriots still left in our government.

I don't think they're 'organized' into some 'deep state conspiracy', though frankly I wish they were. If there actually WERE a 'deep state'? It'd be in existence EXACTLY ... to protect our great Nation from the fucking STUPIDITY of 60M voters, and the treachery of the Fascist GOP, in order to save our standing on the world stage, and the dream of what our Founders meant America ... to be. A LIBERAL DEMOCRACY.

IOW, the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Dump and his knuckle-dragging cultists ... imagine.

Trump meanwhile is furiously attempting to purge the last remaining PATRIOTS still left in our government, of that you can be sure. They're a threat to his power, and his goal of turning OUR Nation into his, and his rich GLOBALIST FASCIST friends ... personal checkbook ... and the world's Merchant of Death.

[RDANGELO]

4. I wouldn't call it deep state if it originated outside of the government.

I have a hard time believing that he is getting all this information on his own with the funding from one Stormy Daniels.

[mr_lebowski]

5. 'Funding' is a different matter from 'source of the info' ;)

Not sure we're in disagreement if all you're talking about is financial help.

[Hamlette]

6. He's just keeping us interested while we wait. . .

[modrepub]

7. From the Man Who Said He Could Shoot Some Body and Not Lose Voters

Mueller could show Trump stole money from the baby Jesus himself and there's probably still going to be a strong vocal minority of people who won't believe it. I'm not buying even this will slow Trump and his cronies down. They have convinced themselves they are right and life under the opposition will be 20x worse.

[jberryhill]

8. Much of what Avenatti is doing at this point has nothing to do with Daniels case

The financial arrangements of Cohen's company are not in dispute in the Daniels case. As far as the contract action is concerned, nobody disputes that Daniels got paid, and wherever or however Cohen got the money is not relevant to whether the contract is valid.

So, to your point, the various cliffhangers and roll out of what is essentially stated in the Steele dossier do seem to be a separate project from anything relevant to the Daniels civil action.

If people are leaking information to him or otherwise compromising the criminal investigation, that's certainly entertaining and fascinating stuff, but ultimately not good for the criminal investigation itself.

[EffieBlack]

9. Whatever he's doing, I think he's operating with Mueller's tacit approval

By playing "outside guy," he's helping till the soil for Mueller. If Avanatti weren't stoking things in the media, the Trump team and their smear/obfuscation operation would pretty much be owning the field. Some media outlets are doing a good job but they're all over the place and not focused - the same problem we saw during the campaign when, even when they actually did report on Trump's wrongdoing, there was so much of it and it was so spread out, it couldn't catch hold the way the one-drumbeat on Hillary's email did.

Avanatti's approach has been really helpful because he's putting out a huge amount of negative - and solid- info about Trump's corruption, but he's focusing it in a narrow area that everyone can keep track of - Cohen and his dealings - and meting it out in pieces that the public can understand and digest.

By doing this, he's a filling up a lot of space that Trump's forces would be using to distract from or trash Mueller. For example, notice we don't see House and Senate Republicans bloviating as much lately. I think that's because Avanatti is taking up many of the slots they'd be given.

He's also priming the public to accept that Trump is corrupt, which will make them more receptive to Mueller's report, which will hopefully connect all of the dots.

I don't think Avanatti is directly coordinating with Mueller's team. But I do think that Mueller is fine with what he's doing and,if he weren't, he'd take steps (behind the scenes, of course) to shut him down. Instead, it's very likely that Avanatti is getting signals from the right people letting him know when he's hot, when he's cold, when he should stand down and when he should barrel forward.

[kentuck]

10. I would agree that Mueller is trying to win the battle of public opinion.

He is going up against an Elmer Gantry, P.T. Barnum-like reality show host that understands selling and propaganda.

[mopinko]

11. not an original thought. widely speculated and strenuously denied.

possible but hardly the only possibility.
personally, i would be shocked.

[RandomAccess]

12. I don't think he started out to do this in the way he's currently doing it

I think he sort of fell into it, which is fine. I think at a certain point he had all this info and decided to use it. I'm quite sure, personally, that he recognizes the impact and importance of what he's doing, being no fan of Trump whatsoever.

[IronLionZion]

13. It would be amazing if Democrats were that organized