Avenatti Accuser Says He Dragged Her By Arm, Called Her ‘Bitch’

A week after he was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence at the Los Angeles apartment building where he resides, Michael Avenatti—who gained overnight fame earlier this year as the media-friendly lawyer for AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Donald Trump—faced detailed accusations against him in a court filing by actress Mareli Miniutti, the alleged victim in the incident, NBC News reported.  On Monday, Miniutti—who is reportedly in her 20s and a native of the Estonia, a country in the Baltics region—filed for a restraining order against Avenatti, and on Tuesday she was granted a temporary restraining order by an L.A. County Superior Court judge, according to the Hollywood business site The Wrap.  In a declaration in support of her request for the order, Miniutti—who most recently appeared in a small, uncredited role in the Sandra Bullock-starring film Ocean’s Eight—gave her description of the incident that she says took place on the evening of November 13. According to the celebrity news site The Blast, Miniutti alleges that an angry Avenatti called her an “ungrateful fucking bitch,” and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her out of his apartment and into an outside corridor. She says that she was clad only in underwear and a T-shirt at the time and as a result suffered minor injuries, including scratches and red marks on her skin. Miniutti’s account, however, contradicted details in an initial report on Avenatti’s arrest by the gossip site TMZ, which claimed that the victim’s face was “swollen and bruised” from the incident. Miniutti also alleged in the court filing that Avenatti struck her in the face with pillows, after moving “very close to me in a threatening manner that made me feel afraid."  "Do not disrespect me. You don't get to sleep in my house tonight,” Avenatti told her, according to Miniutti’s allegations. Avenatti on his Twitter account said Tuesday that security camera video from the building contradicts many of the details in the TMZ story, and said that he has requested the footage be made public. “I want the truth to be known—all of it,” Avenatti wrote. “The truth about the alleged incident on Tues night/Wed am, as well as the truth about TMZ's completely false reporting about last Wed afternoon. I want it ALL disclosed. ASAP.” While not specifically denying the details of Miniutti’s allegations in her court filing, Avenatti asserted, “I will be proven innocent. I have done nothing wrong,” according to NBC News. “When the truth and the facts are fully disclosed, including the security camera footage, I will be vindicated and a lot of people and news organizations are going to owe me an apology as well as money. Completely bogus,” he wrote on his Twitter feed.  Photo Luke Harold / Wikimedia Commons Public Domain