Michael Avenatti is GUILTY: Jury convicts disgraced lawyer on two counts
Michael Avenatti is found guilty of wire fraud and identity theft for stealing $300,000 from porn star Stormy Daniels that she was owed for her book detailing Trump ‘affair’: Disgraced lawyer faces 22 YEARS in prison
Michael Avenatti has been found guilty on counts of wire fraud and identity theft The jury reached a verdict Friday afternoon to find the lawyer guilty on both counts of ripping off his porn star client, Stormy Daniels Avenatti said after the verdict, ‘I’m very disappointed in the jury’s verdict. I am looking forward to a full adjudication of all the issues on appeal’ Asked if regretted representing himself, Avenatti snapped, ‘No not at all’During the two-week trial, prosecutors said the California lawyer cheated Daniels out of nearly $300,000 she was owed for her autobiography ‘She thought he was her advocate. But he betrayed her, and he told lies to try to cover it all up,’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman told the jury Avenatti argued that he was owed the money and never thought it was wrong to take it For his own bizarre closing arguments, Avenatti compared his trial to cockroach infested food Avenatti, 50, faces up to 22 years in prison
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Michael Avenatti has been found guilty on counts of wire fraud and identity theft after a bizarre trial where the lawyer represented himself and botched his own defense.
The jury reached a verdict Friday afternoon to find Avenatti guilty on both counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for ripping off his porn star client, Stormy Daniels.
He now faces up to 22 years in prison.
Avenatti sat holding his hands together and staring ahead as the jury read out their verdict. Afterwards one of the lawyers who he ditched to represent himself – they continued to advise him during the case – patted him on the back.
A grim-faced Michael Avenatti said after the verdict, ‘I’m very disappointed in the jury’s verdict. I am looking forward to a full adjudication of all the issues on appeal.’
Asked if regretted representing himself, Avenatti snapped, ‘No not at all.’
During the two-week trial, prosecutors said the California lawyer cheated Daniels out of nearly $300,000 she was owed for her autobiography, spending it on his firm’s payroll and personal expenses.
Avenatti argued that he was owed the money and never thought it was wrong to take it.
Michael Avenatti has been found guilty on counts of wire fraud and identity theft. The jury reached a verdict Friday afternoon to find the lawyer guilty on both counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for ripping off his porn star client, Stormy Daniels
Avenatti, 50, faces up to 22 years in prison. He has maintained his innocence
‘Stormy Daniels thought he was her advocate. But he betrayed her, and he told lies to try to cover it all up,’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman told the jury
Avenatti helped secure the book deal for Daniels in spring 2018, shortly after he began representing her in lawsuits meant to free her from the rules of a 2016 payment of $130,000 she had received from Donald Trump’s personal lawyer to remain silent about an alleged tryst a decade earlier with Trump.
The hush-money payment occurred just days before Trump was elected president. He has denied the claims by Daniels.
Avenatti used his heightened profile at the time to make frequent appearance on cable television news programs.
Daniels, a porn star and stripper who has also earned stage credits in two mainstream movies, testified during the trial that she never authorized Avenatti to pocket some of the $800,000 advance on her autobiography, ‘Full Disclosure,’ which was published in the fall of 2018.
‘I move for a mistrial on multiple grounds,’ Avenatti said in court Wednesday. ‘The AUSA used an analogy me cheating on my spouse.’
Judge Furman denied Avenatti’s motion as ‘frivolous.’
Prosecutors said during closing arguments Wednesday that Avenatti ‘got tangled in his own web of lies’ after embezzling money from his former client, porn star Stormy Daniels.
‘She thought he was her advocate. But he betrayed her, and he told lies to try to cover it all up,’ Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman told the jury. ‘The defendant got tangled in his own web of lies. He got caught.’
‘At this trial, the truth came out. The defendant’s lies and betrayal were exposed,’ Sobelman added.
For his own bizarre closing arguments, Avenatti compared his trial to cockroach-infested food.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, the case that the government is attempting to feed you has a giant cockroach in the middle of the plate,’ Avenatti said. ‘Would you eat that dish or would you send it back? I submit that you would send it back.
‘When you deliberate, I ask that you send it back and find me not guilty because, ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what I am.’
‘To conclude, I will leave you with this: I’m Italian. I like Italian food,’ Avenatti told the jury before Judge Furman interrupted.
‘Mr. Avenatti, please stick to the evidence in this case,’ the judge said.
A grim-faced Michael Avenatti said after the verdict, ‘I’m very disappointed in the jury’s verdict. I am looking forward to a full adjudication of all the issues on appeal’
During the two-week trial, prosecutors said the California lawyer cheated Daniels of nearly $300,000 she was owed for her autobiography, spending it on his firm’s payroll and personal expenses
Avenatti is pictured left with Stormy Daniels in May 2018, before their professional relationship collapsed after she accused him of embezzling money she made of her 2018 memoir Full Disclosure (right)
Sobleman said in closing arguments, ‘She didn’t know the defendant was the reason she hadn’t received her payment, not the publisher. The defendant lied to her about her second book payment over and over and over again.’
‘He stole from her. He lied to her over and over and over again,’ Sobleman said. ‘All to steal and spend money that was not his. The defendant is guilty.’
Daniels claims she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006 – on the night this photo was taken – a year after he married third wife Melania. Trump denies the claim
‘They traveled and appeared on television together. He was supposed to be her advocate. But the defendant betrayed her trust,’ Sobelman said.
Avenatti pleaded not guilty and has downplayed the dispute as a disagreement over legal fees that has no place in criminal court.
In his closing argument, Avenatti told jurors that he and his firm had spent millions of dollars ‘to the benefit of Ms Daniels’.
He said that if they conclude that he had a good faith belief in his mind that he was entitled to be paid from book proceeds, the jurors must acquit.
‘A good faith belief, ladies and gentlemen, is a complete defense to all of these charges. It’s game over for the government,’ Avenatti said.
‘Let me be clear, Michael Avenatti never committed the crime of wire fraud. Michael Avenatti never committed the crime of aggravated identity theft. There is insufficient evidence, ladies and gentlemen, to show that Michael Avenatti, ever intended to defraud Ms Daniels.’
He accused her of lying when she gave evidence for two days last week and called her ‘not credible’, citing her claim that she has a doll that called her ‘mommy’, that she sees dead people and can see inside a house from the outside.
‘Is that somebody you can count on 100% when determining whether someone committed a crime beyond a reasonable doubt?’ Avenatti asked. ‘I would submit no.
Avenatti cross-examined his former client Stormy Daniels on day five of his wire fraud and aggravated identity theft trial
Taking the stand as prosecutors’ star witness in federal court in Manhattan, Daniels told the jury last week that she was ‘very, very angry. Shocked. Disbelief. Hurt, and I felt very betrayed and stupid when she learned in February 2019 that payments from her publisher that were made months earlier had never been passed along to her.
The height of the trial came when Avenatti quizzed Daniels on a slew of topics, including her apparent ability to communicate with the dead, her line of lube, as well as her previous comments about him being ‘raped’ in prison.
Daniels strode confidently into the federal courtroom in an all-black getup, donning a black flowing blazer, blouse, pants and heels.
Avenatti sought to discredit her by asking about statements she had made about him in a podcast in September 2019, after he stopped representing her.
He kicked off the exchange by referring to Daniels’s tweets about him, asking: ‘You said in prison there’ll be a long line of people to a**-rape me, didn’t you?’
‘I don’t remember,’ Daniels replied.
He continued: ‘You said it’s handy you have your own line of lube how because you can just bring me a gift basket in prison?’ Daniels replied: ‘I did, on Twitter.’
Avenatti brought up when the host of the podcast said he wanted him to ‘f***ing suffer’, Daniels replied that she would ‘put tabasco sauce in the lube’.
Daniels said: ‘I probably said that’.
Avenatti asked about another podcast in July last year where she talked about Avenatti ‘dropping the soap’ in prison, a phrase referring to anal sex which Daniels replied was a ‘gay term.’
Avenatti said that when the host said: ‘I hope he doesn’t drop anything’, Daniels replied: ‘I do. Over and over’. Daniels confirmed she made those comments.
In one of many odd transitions, Avenatti then pivoted to asking Daniels about her ability to speak to the dead and her doll, in another attempt to discredit her.
The California lawyer, who represented himself against wire fraud and identity theft charges, quizzed Daniels last week on a slew of topics including her apparent ability to communicate with the dead, her line of lube, as well as her previous comments about him being ‘raped’ in prison
The court heard that Daniels put out a January 2018 statement denying she had a relationship with Donald Trump and that she received hush money from him.
But Daniels admitted to the jury that the statement, which she put out at the request of Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, had ‘portions’ that were not true.
In fact Daniels did have sex with Trump and accepted $130,000 to keep quiet about it before the 2016 Presidential election.
In court Avenatti asked Daniels why she denied media reports in 2018 and said that she had a ‘romantic affair’ with the former President.
Daniels fired back: ‘It was not romantic.’
She insisted: ‘I did not have a relationship with Donald Trump.’
The jury heard that Daniels appeared on the TV show 60 Minutes in March 2018 where host Anderson Cooper asked her if her denials were lies.
Daniels told the court that she told Cooper: ‘I don’t consider getting cornered coming out of a bathroom to be an affair.’
Avenatti said: ‘What’s more important to you: being honest with this jury or being honest with Anderson Cooper?’
After an objection from the prosecution Judge Furman instructed Daniels not to answer.
Avenatti asked: ‘The fact of the matter is that consistently in your adult life when things mattered most you lied?’
The judge again told Daniels not to answer.
A sentencing date has yet to be set.
