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He broke that news on Lawrence O’Donnell Thursday night between Michael Cohen and Keith Davidson. He is essentially confirming through empirical evidence-that he himself likely has-what was logically apparent all along: that the payment to Stormy Daniels came 10 days before the election was no coincidence. Malcom Nance has spoken about what it means to ‘think like an intelligence agent’ and it seems to me that a major key to this is while you understand that coincidences happen, you have to be skeptical of coincidences that are too convenient.

In that vein, the claim that the payment had nothing to do with the election was never very plausible on its face. Now Avenatti confirms that he is aware of ‘extensive communications’ between Michael Cohen and Keith Davidson-who was Stormy Daniels’ previous lawyer. Presumably, Avenatti, as Daniel’s lawyer subsequent to Davidson would have access to all Davidson’s communications and that’s how he is aware of them.

In any case, Avenatti revealed the existence of these communications that confirm that payment was all about the election to Lawrence O’Donnell. 

Stormy Daniels’s lawyer said late Thursday that there were “extensive communications” between President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen and Daniels’s then-lawyer about the need to finalize a payment to Daniels before the 2016 election.

“There were extensive communications between Michael Cohen and Keith Davidson in October 2016 relating to the timing of this payment and the need for this payment to be made prior to the election,” Daniels’s attorney Michael Avenatti told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.

“Extensive communications relating to the need for the payment to be made, when it was made and as to — related to potential influence on the election,” he added.

Avenatti asserted that everyone involved in the agreement “knew the importance of the payment as it related to the election.”

“So any claim that the payment had nothing to do with the election is completely bogus,” he said. “There’s no question it had everything to do with the election.”

What’s interesting is why Avenatti didn’t reveal this sooner. Basically, he says, because no one asked-prior to Lawrence O’Donnell.

To be sure, Giuliani himself has basically confirmed it was about the election in his recent public statements. He claims it was about supposedly shielding Melania Trump from a-supposedly false story-but then as he said to Sean Hannity ‘can you imagine if this story came out during the last debate against Hillary?

“Giuliani begins by asserting that the Trump campaign didn’t violate campaign-finance laws in paying Clifford, but he doesn’t deny the details that led people to think otherwise. It’s certainly possible that Cohen would have made the payment on Trump’s behalf in any circumstance. But the judicial system would have to weigh that defense against Giuliani’s remarks Thursday on Fox and Friends, which clearly suggested that Clifford, who alleges she had sex with Trump in 2006, was paid a month before the election so as not to hurt Trump’s campaign. (“Imagine if that came out on Oct. 15, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” Giuliani said. “Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”)”

UPDATE:: Of course, now Rudy has his own campaign finance and possibly legal issues. 

Meanwhile according to ‘two people familiar with the arrangement’ Trump knew of the payment to Stormy Daniels months before denying any knowledge back in April. 

“President Trump knew about a six-figure payment that Michael D. Cohen, his personal lawyer, made to a pornographic film actress several months before he denied any knowledge of it to reporters aboard Air Force One in April, according to two people familiar with the arrangement.”

“How much Mr. Trump knew about the payment to Stephanie Clifford, the actress, and who else was aware of it have been at the center of a swirling controversy for the past 48 hours touched off by a television interview with Rudolph W. Giuliani, a new addition to the president’s legal team. The interview was the first time a lawyer for the president had acknowledged that Mr. Trump had reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payments to Ms. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.”

“It was not immediately clear when Mr. Trump learned of the payment, which Mr. Cohen made in October 2016, at a time when news media outlets were poised to pay her for her story about an alleged affair with Mr. Trump in 2006. But three people close to the matter said that Mr. Trump knew that Mr. Cohen had succeeded in keeping the allegations from becoming public at the time the president denied it.”

“Ms. Clifford signed a nondisclosure agreement, and accepted the payment just days before Mr. Trump won the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Trump has denied he had an affair with Ms. Clifford and insisted that the nondisclosure agreement was created to prevent any embarrassment to his family.”

“Mr. Giuliani said this week that the reimbursement to Mr. Cohen totaled $460,000 or $470,000, leaving it unclear what else the payments were for beyond the $130,000 that went to Ms. Clifford. One of the people familiar with the arrangement said that it was a $420,000 total over 12 months.”

Well, for starters, we know of the $150,000 grand payment to Karen McDougal

Was that included in Giuliani’s sum?

Indeed, Giuliani himself basically admitted that if Trump didn’t know the exact details he knew the gist of what Cohen had done at the time.

Rudy is proving himself to be a gift that keeps on giving-to Mueller:

“Rudolph W. Giuliani’s media blitz to convince the public that neither Donald Trump nor his lawyer had violated the law by paying a porn star to keep quiet about an alleged affair might have backfired, giving investigators new leads to chase and new evidence of potential crimes, legal analysts said.”

Might of backfired? There’s no question, he is proving to be an MVP-for investigators.

“Giuliani made statements that speak to Trump and lawyer Michael Cohen’s intent — an important aspect of some crimes — and he made assertions that investigators can now check against what they have already learned from documents and witnesses, legal analysts said. His comments to media outlets underscore a growing tension for the White House: The FBI investigation of Cohen presents a legal problem for the president that his own lawyer might have exacerbated.”

“I’m sure his strategy was damage control,” said Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at the University of Michigan, “but I’m not sure he controlled much.”

Quite the contrary.

“Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, has known since last year the details of how Mr. Cohen was being reimbursed, which was mainly through payments of $35,000 per month from the trust that contains the president’s personal fortune, according to two people with knowledge of the arrangement.”

“Speaking of which, as part of the Southern District of NY investigation, Cohen is being investigated for a stipend of $774,000 thousand dollars during the campaign. “

“Those transactions could factor into a broad investigation of Mr. Cohen’s business affairs being conducted by Manhattan federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who are examining whether Mr. Cohen violated any laws in his efforts to raise cash and conceal negative information about Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. Those include transactions tied to his credit line and his ownership of real estate and taxi medallions, the people said.”