R. Kelly's Former Crisis Manager and Michael Avenatti are Now Best Buds (Exclusive)

They were previously — staunchly — on opposite sides of the R. Kelly divide.

But now it appears Michael Avenatti and Darrell Johnson are best buddies, if their recent dinner date in LA was anything to go by.

The pair were filmed gushing over each other as they prepared to dine at Craig's in Beverly Hills on Friday night.

"People say I can't make up with anybody?" Avenatti said. "Let me tell you something: this guy and I, we were adversaries not long ago in connection with the R. Kelly matter."

"We've reached common ground. We're going to break some bread here and make up. We have found common ground, and it's all about justice."

"We've been long life friends anyway," Johnson chimed in. "We never had a dispute. All we said... Avenatti was a brilliant attorney. I have no problem with Avenatti. The problem I had was with some of the things being said."

"Avenatti always said genius stuff, brilliant attorney. With me, I was a fan always. I said that on CNN."

The lawyer concluded: "This guy, being a spokesperson for R. Kelly, this guy took chicken shit and managed to make a little bit of chicken salad. I always respected that."

Avenatti famously represented a number of R. Kelly's alleged victims in his ongoing sex crimes case. Johnson just as famously quit as Kelly's crisis manager last year, shortly after he admitted in an interview with CBS that he would not leave his daughter alone with the singer.

On Friday night, neither man elaborated any further on the nature of their relationship; however a source close to the situation insisted Avenatti was not hiring Johnson as a crisis manager.

Avenatti is currently in plenty of legal trouble himself; on Tuesday night he was arrested yet again on new allegations of fraud and money laundering, during a break at a California State Bar Court hearing regarding his existing indictments for extortion, fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion, perjury and other crimes.

On Wednesday a federal judge ordered him to jail, claiming he posed a danger to the public, the LA Times reported.

Judge James V. Selna sided with prosecutors who claimed Avenatti had broken federal and state laws by hiding $1 million from one of his ex-wives and other creditors after his March arrest.

He is already accused of trying to extort money from Nike, as well as stealing money from former porn star Stormy Daniels, another former client.

Avenatti denies all charges, new and old.

Another embattled attorney Johnson is a fan of is Bill Cosby's former lawyer Monique Pressley, whom he also described on Friday as a "great attorney", before offering critique on her strategy.

"What she did for (Cosby) the first time was brilliant. I think the approach the second time for Bill Cosby might not have been the best approach," he said.

"If you got the resources, you use your resources. You got a billion dollars, you going to be in jail? You don't do that with a billion dollars. You got the resources, you're free. You got a billion dollars, you don't go to jail with a billion dollars. You don't go to jail. Not with a billion dollars. That makes no sense."

"Come on now — who do you know with a billion dollars in jail?"

Incidentally, it was also reported by the Daily Mail on Wednesday that Pressley has been suspended indefinitely from practicing law in Washington D.C. amid claims she misappropriated funds for personal use.

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