Michael Avenatti, the high-living, media-friendly lawyer who represented AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels through her lawsuit against Donald Trump in 2018, will go on trial starting on April 21, to face charges that he bilked Daniels out of nearly $300,000, according to a report by the New York Post.
The 48-year-old litigator appeared on television nearly every day for a year as Daniels’ case against Trump awaited its court hearing. But as quickly as the formerly obscure trial lawyer skyrocketed to national fame, his fall from grace was perhaps even more sudden. In March of last year, Avenatti was busted on charges that he tried to extort a $20 million payment from the Nike athletic footwear corporation.
More charges quickly followed, alleging that Avenatti financed his jet-setting lifestyle largely by defrauding his clients out of their money, often from settlement payments he had won for them in lawsuits.
One of those clients was Daniels. In the upcoming trial, Avenatti faces a charge that he diverted a nearly $300,000 publisher’s advance for her 2018 book Full Disclosure into his own private bank account.
Prosecutors say that he then liberally dipped into the advance money intended for Daniels, putting it to a variety of personal uses—including lease payments on a Ferrari automobile, airfares, fancy meals, and even dry cleaning bills.
As AVN.com reported, the original federal judge assigned to Avenatti’s fraud case over the Daniels book advance—Deborah Batts—died on February 3. After her unexpected death, Avenatti’s trial date was expected to be postponed. But according to the Post report, the original April 21 date remains unchanged.
The case is now assigned to the Southern District of New York Chief Judge Colleen McMahon.
Even as he prepares to face trial in the Daniels fraud case, Avenatti remains in the midst if his trial on the Nike extortion charges. Testimony in that trial wrapped up earlier this week, with Avenatti announcing that he would decline to take the stand in his own defense.
In the Nike case, Avenatti is charged with demanding a $20 million payment from the shoemaker, threatening that if the company didn’t fork over the cash, he would go public with claims that Nike secretly funneled cash to collegiate basketball players—payments which violate NCAA rules and can also bring criminal charges.
Avenatti claims that his threats were simply part of his tough, but otherwise normal, legal negotiating tactics.
That case is now in the hands of jurors. But even after the Daniels fraud case, Avenatti’s legal troubles will continue. He also faces charges in California, alleging that he defrauded other clients out of their settlement money. In one case, Avenatti is charged with embezzling more than $3 million in settlement money from Los Angeles County that he won for a mentally ill client who allegedly became a paraplegic after suffering abuse in a County Sheriff's jail.
Avenatti has denied all of the charges against him.
Photo By The View YouTube Screen Capture
