White House

Stormy Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, is making a name for himself by going after President Trump, but now he's facing his own lawsuit ... and he's accused of doing something very Trumpian.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Avenatti's being sued by Jason Frank, a former partner at Egan Avenatti ... Michael's law firm, because he claims Avenatti stiffed him out of a couple mil.

Frank alleges Avenatti pulled a Trump in 2016 by refusing to hand over his firm's tax returns. Frank says he needed that data to figure out how much money he was owed under their deal when he left the company ... which he says is 25 percent of firm profits, plus a cut of client fees.

According to the docs, filed by attorney Eric George ... Frank and Avenatti's firm eventually duked it out in arbitration, and the firm settled with him for $4.85 million.

Problem is, according to Frank, when it came time to fork over the first $2 mil payment ... the firm stiffed him. Now he's suing to get Stormy's lawyer to pay up.

President Trump's call to Waffle House hero James Shaw Jr. left a lot to be desired ... according to James.

We talked to him Wednesday on the heels of his $241k donation to the Waffle House shooting victims and their families ... and his Monday phone call from the White House. While James was quick to thank the Prez for reaching out, he also described the conversation as "lackluster."

It's worth noting, the call came 22 days after James heroically wrestled an AR-15 from a gunman ... saving countless lives. He acknowledged, Trump's a busy guy.

James also revealed he's having trouble at his job due to one giant misperception about him. Still, he says he's focused on his mission -- he just started a community service group in Nashville.

Moby thinks he knows how a conversation between Jesus and President Trump would go down ... and it ain't pretty.

We got him Tuesday at L.A.'s Little Pine restaurant, and the iconic DJ/producer was heated about the deadly violence this week following the U.S. embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. At least 60 Palestinians were reportedly killed during protests.

Moby admits he has no religious skin in the game, but he's still pissed about what he sees as the rationale behind the move -- namely the second coming. Really.

Rudy Giuliani stonewalled our photog who had a simple question ... shouldn't Trump apologize for the despicable remark one of his employees made about Senator John McCain?

Giuliani arrived at Reagan National Airport Tuesday and our guy -- like millions of Americans -- wanted to know how a decent person wouldn't say "I'm sorry" after an employee HE PICKED would say something so disgusting ... writing off an American hero struggling with brain cancer by saying he's "dying anyway."

Meghan McCain UNLOADED on "Silicon Valley" star Kumail Nanjiani Monday morning for essentially saying her father, John McCain, didn't do enough to stand up for victims of bigotry.

So, how did Kumail respond? With one of the nicest compliments ever.

Backstory ... Meghan was pissed over a tweet Kumail posted about the White House aide who caused outrage last week when she joked that John's opinions didn't matter because he's gonna die soon anyway.

"What was said about McCain was vile," Nanjiani wrote ... "but I wish the McCain’s had been as offended and vocal when vile stuff was said about other people/races/nationalities."

"Perhaps we wouldn’t be in this moment right now."

Meghan -- John's daughter -- was deeply offended and fired back Monday morning with a heated note and a video showing her dad shutting down anti-Obama supporters at a 2008 rally.

"You mean like he did here? I could give you literally thousands of examples of my father speaking up against bigotry of all kinds but this video sums it up pretty concisely," Meghan wrote.

"You know nothing about my family or my father Kumail, nothing."

Kumail responded a short time later ...

"Meghan, I did not mean to offend you. I could explain my point further but instead I will just say something I truly believe: if we had more politicians like your father, the world would be a better place."

Meghan thanked Kumail for his response -- and he wished her family well.

Christie Brinkley's been divorced from Billy Joel for decades, but it seems she still likes big shots ... this one in the form of Stormy Daniels' lawyer.

Christie got super cozy Saturday night with Michael Avenatti. Christie and her brood were dining at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, NY, when Avenatti pulled up a chair toward the end of the meal. Everyone else left, but Christie and Mike stuck around to chat, laugh and be merry.

It's unclear what exactly they were discussing, but we imagine one subject might've come up -- Donald Trump. She's claimed Trump hit on her while he was married to Ivana Trump, and when she was dating Billy. She said Trump invited her to Aspen on his private jet ... she declined.

Avenatti tells us he and Christie are friends. He says she's a "classy, smart woman with great insight."

Michael Avenatti ... he hangs with women who banged Trump and women who didn't.

President Trump is SUPER late on his White House rent -- about a couple hundred grand in the hole, in fact -- according to a new lawsuit. Bear with us ... okay?

A dude named William Feegba is trying to take Trump to court over an alleged landlord tenant breach -- suing the Prez for the 1 full year he's been staying at the White House, and demanding he fork over $240k in unpaid rent at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. at a rate of $25k/month. You read that right ... we couldn't make sense of the math either.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Feegba claims to be a descendant of George Washington, which he seems to think gives him ownership of the WH. Absurd as it sounds, that's his story -- and he's been sticking to it since Jimmy Carter's days ... kinda.

Feegba started filing retroactive suits just last year against every president since 1977 -- and he says everyone from Jimmy to Trump owes him back rent ranging from $12k to $100k. None of the complaints have been successful, btw ... and now it's Donnie's turn.

Only time will tell if he'll collect from 45. No word yet on any potential eviction proceedings.

Congressmen Steve Scalise and Hakeem Jeffries might be on different sides of the aisle, but they both agree -- it's a good deal when North Korea gives us what we want.

Both Representatives were on Capitol Hill Wednesday, when we asked if President Trump deserves props for Kim Jong-un releasing 3 American hostages. House Majority Whip Scalise naturally heaped praise on the Prez for standing up to one brutal dictator, and sending a message to all U.S. enemies.

Melania Trump is being accused of plagiarizing material from the Obama administration, but the First Lady is firing back ... saying it's not what it seems.

Melania launched her "Be Best" initiative -- promoting online safety for kids -- Monday at the White House, but she's catching heat because the pamphlet attached to her campaign is a nearly exact copy of a pamphlet published in 2014 ... while Michelle and Barack Obama were in the White House.

The pamphlet's cover, text and images under the Obama era are almost exactly the same as Melania's version. The text inside the pamphlets are the same.

Melania's office responded to the backlash and told us, "Mrs. Trump agreed to add Be Best branding and distribute the booklet in an effort to use her platform to amplify the positive message within." Her office went on to say the Federal Trade Commission, which originally authored the pamphlet, was excited Melania included it in her campaign.

The White House website initially said the material was written "by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission." After the backlash, it's been changed to "a Federal Trade Commission booklet, promoted by First Lady Melania Trump."

Stevie Wonder doesn't have time to waste thinking over Kanye West's ridiculous views on slavery -- ditto for President Trump's proposed race summit, actually.

We got Stevie Saturday at LAX and asked what he thought of 'Ye's controversial comment -- ya know, that slavery must've been a choice black people made after a certain point.

You can tell the he's not having it with Kanye's POV -- he even says as much by calling it "foolishness" ... adding that if you know your history, you don't listen to such BS.

PGA star Bubba Watson says President Trump will get crushed if they ever play golf again, because Bubba gives NO ONE -- and he means NO ONE -- a free ride on the links, even the Commander-in-Chief.

We got Bubba out in NYC and asked if he ever played with Trump, which he told our guy he did ... way BEFORE Trump moved into the White House.

"2006. I met him on his gold course and played a couple holes with him."

We had to ask Bubba, now that Trump's the top man, do you maybe drop a few holes so the leader of the free world feels good about himself?

"No, I would never let him win. If he beats me he beats me. No not at all, 'cause then I could tell everybody I beat the President."

Donald Trump just shouted out Kanye West during his speech at the NRA Convention ... for giving him a boost in the polls with black people.

The Prez thanked Kanye in front of the huge audience in Dallas, telling them the rapper must have some power because he doubled his support from African-Americans ... according to a new poll.

Trump's citing a recent Reuters poll that says 22 percent of black males approve of the job he's doing as President -- doubling his last approval rating of 11 percent. It's unclear from the poll how black females feel.

As we reported ... the bro fest between Kanye and Trump has been going on for nearly 2 weeks. The rapper has voiced his love of the Prez, and even rocked a MAGA hat.

Clearly, the feeling of love is mutual ... at least for now.

3:00 PM PT -- We did some digging into the Reuters poll Trump was quoting, and turns out the 11 percent boost is based on polling only black men, for what it's worth. We also checked several other polls -- of men and women -- and there was still an increase, but only about 4 percent.

A famous Trump-friendly pastor says Colin Kaepernick and others with a voice on the subject of race are cordially invited to a proposed White House summit, with the centerpiece being Kanye West.

We got Darrell Scott Wednesday at Reagan National Airport and asked if he was, in fact, talking to the President about hosting a summit on race relations at the White House, which has apparently gotten fast-tracked thanks to Kanye's professed love for 45.

Scott says it's all true. But it's not just Ye he wants at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. -- he says his camp has reached out to Kaep as well.

Donald Trump's going to have even more questions to answer about his relationship with Stormy Daniels now ... and it's all thanks to Rudy Giuliani.

The former NYC mayor was being interviewed by Sean Hannity Wednesday night when the 2 began discussing Trump's "hush" agreement with Daniels ... and the $130k Michael Cohen has admitted to paying her to keep quiet about her alleged tryst with the Prez.

Giuliani was making the case everything that went down was perfectly legal, but then dropped a bombshell by claiming Trump reimbursed Cohen the money ... despite the President's repeated denial of ever knowing anything about the $130k "hush" deal.

Julius Erving says he's not hurt by Kanye West's comments about slavery being a choice -- he's more hurt by comments that have come out of Donald Trump's White House.

We spotted the NBA Hall of Famer at Ronald Reagan airport in Virginia on Wednesday -- and with such an extensive background in civil rights activism, we had to ask about the Kanye West interview on "TMZ Live."

"He's entitled to his opinion," Erving said.

As for the impact of Kanye's statements on slavery, Erving explained -- "It doesn't hurt me personally because he's only one individual."

"It hurts more to hear things that are coming out of the White House."

Anthony Scaramucci says comedian Michelle Wolf crossed the line when she went after Sarah Huckabee Sanders' looks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner ... calling the roast ridiculous.

We got the Mooch outside Catch Monday night and he had a lot to say about Michelle's 20-minute set that saw her gut Trump's administration ... including his press secretary, who was sitting just a few feet from Michelle.

If ya haven't seen it ... Michelle told Sarah, "I loved you as Aunt Lydia in 'The Handmaid's Tale.'" And Michelle was just getting started.