Show Starring Avenatti and Scaramucci Is Being Pitched to Television Executives

A television show featuring Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who is suing President Donald Trump on behalf of a pornographic film actress, and former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci was pitched to two cable networks in recent weeks, people briefed on the matter said Thursday.

Prominent television agent Jay Sures discussed with executives at CNN and MSNBC the concept of a program where the two men would square off, according to three people briefed on the issue. Both have become frequent cable network guests — Avenatti as one of Trump’s greatest antagonists, and Scaramucci as a loyalist to the president even after flaming out after less than two weeks at the White House.

Representatives for MSNBC and CNN declined to comment, as did Sures and Scaramucci.

“I have no interest in television right now,” Avenatti said. “I enjoy my law practice and look forward to prevailing on behalf of my client Stormy Daniels,” he added, using the stage name of the actress, Stephanie Clifford. He did not respond to a question about why Sures made such a pitch involving him.

Avenatti has appeared on both CNN and MSNBC repeatedly in recent weeks, often several times a day on both networks. The appearances are one part of an aggressive public relations campaign he has waged on behalf of Clifford, earning him criticism that he is leveraging his position to both undermine Trump and promote himself.

He has set off news media frenzies by sending Clifford into the courtroom where the president’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was appearing to fight the FBI’s seizure of documents in a raid. Cohen paid $130,000 to keep Clifford from going public before the 2016 election about an affair she says she had with the president, who denies her claim.

And this month, Avenatti took the unusual step of posting leaked financial records that he said showed that Cohen received money from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch. The posting fueled speculation about Cohen’s financial dealings, but Avenatti also made an embarrassing mistake: One of the documents he published was about a different man named Michael Cohen, not the one who represented Trump.

Avenatti has not yet hired Sures, according to two of the people, but it is not unusual for Hollywood agents to work informally with potential clients. Sures, who is based primarily out of California, has represented Dr. Phil McGraw; the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd; and the co-host of “CBS This Morning,” Norah O’Donnell. Both Avenatti and Scaramucci attended a party thrown by Sures during the White House Correspondents Dinner weekend last month in Washington.

Scaramucci is one of Trump’s most vocal supporters on television. He became one of the most recognizable personalities to come out of the Trump administration last summer after his stint at the White House. Before that, Scaramucci was a financial investor who put his company up for sale in anticipation of joining the White House in a top role. But leaks about the sale snarled his plans, and he was later brought on as Trump shook up his top aides. Since leaving the White House, he has told people he is returning to his financial firm, SkyBridge Capital.

Scaramucci was fired shortly after John F. Kelly took over as White House chief of staff and pledged to instill more discipline in the West Wing. He is now writing a book titled “The Blue Collar President: How Trump Is Reinventing the Aspirational Working Class.”

Before becoming a fixture on cable news as counsel to Clifford, Avenatti had made a name for himself in California legal circles by mixing serious cases — like a $454 million verdict he won against Kimberly-Clark and Halyard Health for claims they were selling defective surgical gowns — with more tabloid-friendly suits against celebrities Paris Hilton and Jim Carrey.

His own website boasts, “Michael often works closely with the press and media in connection with his legal practice — an area in which most lawyers falter and underutilize.” In pressing his earlier cases, he was equally at home before a “60 Minutes” camera or working the gossip channels of People magazine and TMZ.

He had an early mentor in the aggressive use of media in Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations. Avenatti worked during college and law school at Emanuel’s political communications firm, the Research Group. The firm specialized in opposition research, or digging up potentially embarrassing information on opponents for future use in the press.