NEW YORK_Michael Cohen reportedly has a new high-powered lawyer in New York _ and even Michael Avenatti is impressed.
Cohen added former U.S. Attorney Guy Petrillo to his defense team after parting ways with Stephen Ryan of McDermott Will & Emery, Vanity Fair reported Tuesday.
"(Petrillo is) a big upgrade from Ryan and one that he needed after being fleeced for million in attorney's fees," Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, told the New York Daily News Tuesday in response to the news.
Petrillo was the chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York from January 2008 to October 2009.
Cohen, a Trump confidante and personal lawyer dating back more than a decade, is now under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan's Southern District. The feds reportedly want to know if he broke any laws in his business and legal dealings, including his 2016 hush-money payment to Daniels on behalf of President Donald Trump.
The so-called Trump "fixer" was the subject of surprise FBI raids at his residence, hotel and office in April.
The defense team shakeup has fueled speculation Cohen is in dire legal straits and a possible candidate to flip on his old boss.
Attempts to reach Petrillo were not immediately successful Tuesday. According to his web site, he now specializes in defending clients against allegations of fraud, money laundering and violations of banking and embargo laws.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is pursuing a separate breach of contract lawsuit against Cohen in federal court in Los Angeles. She claims her $130,000 agreement with Cohen and Trump was faulty and should be invalidated by the court.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Cohen took aggressive steps to collect on a multimillion-dollar debt around the time he was trying to pay the $130,000 to Daniels in October 2016.
The debt stemmed from a loan he extended to French investor Christophe Escoffier, who a year earlier had bought Cohen out of his ownership of a property at 10 Madison Square West in Manhattan, The Journal reported.
Escoffier fell behind in his monthly payments, and Cohen filed to foreclose on the loan on Oct. 18, 2016, the same week he missed a deadline to pay Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, the newspaper reported.
Cohen has said he later tapped his home-equity credit line to pay Daniels on Oct. 27, 2016.
Just days later, he collected more than $3.8 million from Escoffier, The Journal reported.
"Your accounting of the facts are inaccurate and morph multiple, unrelated issues into one," Cohen told The Journal when asked for comment on the story. "Hence, you create a false narrative."
Cohen has denied any wrongdoing in his business dealings or representation of Trump.
He won a stay in Daniels' lawsuit after informing the court he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to provide evidence in the case.
An upcoming hearing on Daniels' motion to lift the stay was canceled Monday when the judge said he would decide the matter without hearing oral arguments.
Avenatti, who has aggressively argued Daniels' case on Twitter and TV, scored a victory last week when the court declined to issue an emergency gag order sought by Cohen.
