The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said late Monday that it “takes no position” in the hotly contested pro hac vice request by attorney Michael Avenatti to appear before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on behalf of his client, adult film performer Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels.

The government was directed by Wood earlier in the day to alert the court whether it would join attorneys for Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, in opposing Avenatti's application.

In staying out of the fray, federal prosecutors were seen by observers as steering clear of a bitter back-and-forth between an interested, but outside, third party, and the potential target of future criminal prosecution by the office.

“Safe move,” Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler partner Harry Sandick, himself a former federal prosecutor in the office, said about the decision in a post on Twitter.

In a separate Twitter post, Avenatti himself characterized the situation as “the government is NOT opposing my application to be admitted pro hac vice.”

“I remain confident that Mr. Cohen's attempts to exclude me from the case will fail for the reasons we provided,” he said. He declined to elaborate beyond his post in a follow-up email.

Cohen's attorney, McDermott Will & Emery partner Stephen Ryan, did not respond to a request for comment. He has, however, in prior filings argued that Avenatti's disparaging public statements about Cohen, as well as his release of banking information that showed millions deposited shortly after Trump's victory in 2016 from foreign and domestic companies into a bank account Cohen previously used to pay Avenatti's client $130,000 as part of a now-contested hush agreement, amounted to Avenatti creating a “carnival atmosphere” around Cohen and the current legal proceeding in Manhattan.

While the government Monday stated it took no position on Avenatti's pro hac vice application, it did ask the court to continue to hold Clifford's motion to intervene in the matter before Wood in abeyance until June. The government's letter noted the request was made with the consent of Avenatti.

Wood is overseeing a process of reviewing material seized by federal agents from Cohen's offices and home as part of a search warrant in April. Cohen raised concerns about material in the government's possession that could be subject to attorney-client privilege. Former Southern District judge and current Bracewell partner Barbara Jones was named by Wood as a special master to handle the initial review.

One of the intervenors already allowed into the matter has so far declined to weigh in on Avenatti's request. Spears & Imes partner Joanna Hendon, counsel for Trump in the matter before Wood, has not filed papers on the matter. She did not respond to a request for comment Monday on the battle over Avenatti's pro hac vice application.