LOS ANGELES—Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels in her multiple lawsuits against Donald Trump, was convicted last year of attempted extortion against the Nike Corporation, and of other financial crimes against Daniels and other clients. As of Tuesday, he is now an accused plagiarist as well.
In another development in Avenatti’s case this week, prosecutors accused Avenatti of deliberately delaying his receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine, in order to keep himself from returning to jail in New York City. Avenatti has been under home confinement at the residence of a friend, Jay Manheimer, in Venice, California, since April of last year. At that time, he was released from a federal jail in Manhattan due to COVID risks.
But prosecutors say that the health risks claimed by Avenatti to justify his release from jail last year would be effectively eliminated by any one of the three available vaccines. Due to his claimed underlying health condition, Avenatti became eligible to receive the vaccine on March 15, but has taken no steps to obtain the shot, prosecutors say.
Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Selna granted Avenatti’s request to remain in home confinement until May 31 — but stipulated that he is allowed to leave the residence to obtain the COVID vaccine. When prosecutors informed Avenatti’s lawyer, Dean Steward, that the disgraced attorney was now eligible for the vaccine and should get one as soon as possible, Steward responded with a vague email.
“Thank you for the email. We will let you know when and if we need any modifications of my client’s bail conditions relating to the vaccine,” Steward wrote.
In addition, prosecutors also accused Avenatti of plagiarizing a court filing. Last week, Avenatti submitted a motion to Selna in which he accused federal prosecutors of withholding crucial evidence that must be turned over as part of the discovery process in his embezzlement cases. Avenatti asked Selna to declare the prosecutors in contempt of court.
Prosecutors responded by saying that Avenatti’s claims in the motion were “unmoored from the facts,” and that their proof was that Avenatti lifted portions of his motion "nearly word for word" from a motion filed by attorneys in a completely unrelated case — the prosecution of former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“There is no clearer indication that [Avenatti]'s motion is unmoored from the facts in this case than his plagiarizing of a motion based on entirely different facts and circumstances," prosecutors write in their own filing, replying to Avenatti’s motion.
“The government has produced well over a million pages of discovery and numerous forensic copies of digital devices and has repeatedly confirmed to [Avenatti] that the government is continuing to comply with its discovery obligations," prosecutors for the federal government wrote, going on to accuse Avenatti of demanding “exculpatory evidence that simply does not exist.”
While Avenatti’s trial on charges that he swindled Daniels out of nearly $300,000 has been moved to 2022, the formerly media-friendly lawyer still faces an October 12 trial on a wide range of charges involving alleged financial crimes against five other clients, in which prosecutors say that he lied to the clients about settlement money they had won while siphoning off the cash for his personal use.
He is also charged with stiffing Uncle Sam on $3.2 million in payroll taxes from Tully’s Coffee, a chain of coffee shops he previously owned, as well as other tax-related offenses.
Photo By Real Time With Bill Maher YouTube Screen Capture
