NEW YORK (KNX) — Orange County lawyer Michael Avenatti, who rose to national notoriety in 2018 for representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against former U.S. President Donald Trump, was convicted on Friday of stealing funds from his former client.
A New York federal jury found Avenatti guilty of single counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with siphoning off nearly $300,000 of Daniels’ publisher’s advance for her memoir, Full Disclosure.
He faces up to 22 years in prison.
The trial began back in January. On the second day of trial, the embattled attorney fired his public defenders and opted to represent himself.
The tumultuous and at times odd trial included testimony about Daniels’ supposed ability to commune with the dead, and a visit from former White House advisor Michael Cohen.
Prosecutors alleged Avenatti was deeply in debt and “desperate for money” when he appropriated Daniels’ funds. They said he used the money to make monthly payments on a Ferrari and pay his ex-wife, his girlfriend, and employees of his floundering law firm.
Avenatti insisted he was owed proceeds from Daniels’ book sales because of the “millions” of dollars in legal work he did for her in 2018.
“Ms. Daniels was about to embark on a fight against the president of the United States, the most powerful person on the planet,” Avenatti said during summations. “I agreed to take on that fight […] but I didn’t agree to do it for free.”
“He was pretending to fight for Ms. Daniels when he was the one scamming her,” assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman told jurors during closing arguments on Wednesday.
The conviction marks the conclusion of Avenatti’s third criminal trial in two years. Federal prosecutors in California and New York have charged the lawyer with offenses ranging from alleged theft of client funds and extortion of the shoe company Nike.
The California case ended in a mistrial last year. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years behind bars for attempting to extort Nike executives for roughly $20 million.
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