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There are jokes out there about lawyers. Liberals loved Michael Avenatti for going after Trump. Now he gets his, even if it’s just a short sentence. The attorney stole from his client Stormy Daniels. He’s already been convicted of fraud, this is the second sentence. Avenatti attempted to extort $25 million from Nike. He stole from Daniels in book sales, wire fraud and identity theft in book proceeds.
He was convicted in a two week trial
NBC New York reported,
“During a two-week trial, prosecutors said the California lawyer spun a web of lies to cheat Daniels of nearly $300,000 she was owed for her autobiography, spending it on his firm’s payroll and personal expenses. Avenatti argued in closing arguments that he was acting in good faith, believing he was owed the money and never thinking it was wrong to take it. The Daniels case was separate from a previous trial, where Avenatti was convicted of trying to extort Nike to the tune of $25 million. In July 2021, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in that case. Part of Avenatti’s sentence in the Daniels case will run concurrently to the sentence in the Nike case, with the remaining 2.5 years to be served after that first sentence is completed.”
The jury spent about 15 hours deliberating. The wire fraud charge could have been as much as 20 years while the identity theft charge carries a mandatory sentence of just two years.
He stared straight ahead
As his sentence was pronounced. He represented himself.
He told reporters that, “The case isn’t as clear-cut as the government wants everybody to believe.” Avenatti spoke to the jurors, “I was her advocate, I was her champion. I put everything on the line. I wanted to help her. According to the government, Michael Avenatti could never have believed that he had the right to be paid. That is ludicrous, and it is not supported by the evidence.”
Not so fast
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman said otherwise. Avenatti “got tangled in his own web of lies,” and there was a “mountain of evidence,” against him. Sobelman continued, “The defendant was a lawyer who stole from his own client. She thought that he was her own advocate, but he betrayed her, and he told lies to try to cover it all up. The defendant’s lies and betrayal were exposed.”
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman thought the sentence of five or six years was too long because of Avenatti’s successful career. The attorney commonly helps underdogs. Prosecutors thought he took on Daniels for the nationwide platform she offered. The lawyer made it clear he didn’t like Trump and said so in the courtroom, “No one else had the guts to take her case. I believed we could take down a sitting U.S. president who was the biggest threat to our democracy in modern times.”
