LOS ANGELES—Just 10 days after he was let out of jail due to fears that he may contract coronavirus infection, Michael Avenatti on Monday saw his license to practice law suspended, according to documents posted online by the California State Bar Association.
Avenatti, who shot to national fame almost overnight in 2018 as the media-friendly lawyer for AVN Hall of Famer Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Donald Trump, was being held in Manhattan, New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center following his conviction in February on charges that he attempted to extort the Nike shoemaking corporation out of $20 million.
Avenatti is also facing charges that he embezzled about $300,000 from Daniels, by diverting the publisher’s advance for her 2018 memoir Full Disclosure into his own personal bank account, then using the cash to finance his high-flying lifestyle.
The brash lawyer’s trial was set for April 21, but is now in scheduling limbo due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On January 14, Avenatti was in the middle of a disciplinary hearing before the California State Bar when federal agents swooped in and took him into custody, saying that he allegedly violated the terms of his pre-trial release. The 49-year-old litigator had been behind bars in the notoriously gritty Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he complained that he was held in a cell that once housed the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The cell was so cold, Avenatti claimed, that he was forced to sleep under three blankets each night.
But on April 24, Avenatti was released under a ruling by federal Judge James Selna. Avenatti’s lawyers told the judge that due to a bout of pneumonia within the past year, Avenatti would be especially susceptible to contracting coronavirus in the cramped jail facility.
His release is set to last for 90 days. Avenatti is now under house arrest at the home of a friend in Venice, California, where he is required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, and is prohibited from using the internet.
The Bar Association had been moving to deactivate Avenatti’s license over claims that he misappropriated $840,000 from a client. When he was convicted in the separate Nike case, the Bar Association placed him on an “interim” suspension, effective May 4.
