LOS ANGELES—Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels who became an overnight cable news superstar in 2018 with his media campaign against Donald Trump on Daniels’ behalf, was convicted in February of attempting to extort the Nike Corporation out of $20 million, a conviction that carries a maximum 42-year prison term. But Avenatti has been trying to delay that sentence ever since, and his latest attempt came Wednesday.
Avenatti was released from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, where he was awaiting his sentencing hearing as well as a trial on the separate charge that he swindled Daniels out of nearly $300,000, in April due to concerns that he could contract coronavirus infection behind bars.
He has been under confinement at the home of a friend in Venice, California. But he was supposed to return to New York for a June 17 sentencing hearing. That hearing was delayed by a judge, with the approval of government prosecutors.
Now, Avenatti is slated to return for that hearing on August 19. But on Wednesday, his Miami-based lawyer Scott Srebnick filed court papers asking for a new, 50-day delay, until the week of October 5.
Srebnick noted in the filing that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has imposed a requirement that any person traveling from a coronavirus “hot spot” such as California or Florida, must remain in quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in the state. Because Avenatti would be coming from California and Srebnick from Florida, “this would place an unnecessary burden on undersigned counsel, Mr. Avenatti, and any attendees from one of the 22 states,” named as coronavirus hot spots, Srebnick wrote in his request for a new delay.
“Miami is now considered the ‘epicenter’ of the virus in the United States,” Srebnick told Judge Paul Gardephe in the filing. “Trends in Florida and California are not encouraging.”
Avenatti’s release from the New York jail was scheduled to end in July 24 anyway. But earlier this month, a different federal judge allowed him to remain under home confinement and out of jail for an additional 60 days, despite prosecutors’ contention that the disgraced lawyer had violated the terms of his release by using an internet-connected computer.
In addition to his trial on the charges that he embezzled from Daniels in New York, Avenatti also faces charges in California that he defrauded a series of his other, less-famous clients as well.
Photo By Real Time With Bill Maher YouTube Screen Capture
