Judge sides with a foe of Trump

Porn star’s lawyer gets his wish to bar media from his testimony on his firm’s bankruptcy.

After months of demanding transparency from President Trump on his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti convinced a federal judge on Wednesday to block the news media from covering his testimony about his law firm’s bankruptcy.

Eagan Avenatti, his Newport Beach firm, has defaulted on millions of dollars in debt and fallen years behind in paying its payroll taxes.

Avenatti, the owner and managing partner, was subpoenaed by former firm employee Jason Frank to testify Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana. Frank is trying to collect on a $10-million judgment he won against the firm.

Judge Catherine Bauer granted Avenatti’s request Wednesday morning to bar the media from covering his court testimony. Avenatti argued that his firm’s finances and client roster should not be exposed despite a voluminous public case file that already chroni-

cles its troubles in great detail.

“They want to embarrass me,” Avenatti said of Frank and unnamed others.

Avenatti also asked Bauer to seal the transcript of his testimony. She made no immediate decision.

Bauer refused to allow attorneys for The Times and other news organizations to argue that Avenatti’s testimony must take place in open court.

Another bankruptcy judge, Scott C. Clarkson, declined to overturn her order at an emergency hearing Wednesday afternoon after hearing objections from Dan Laidman, an attorney for The Times, ABC and CNN. Clarkson said the media organizations could file further challenges to the closure with Bauer.

For Avenatti, a fixture on cable news since he began representing Daniels, the demand for secrecy was a notable switch in posture.

For weeks, he has demanded that the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen “come clean” and release tapes and documents involving the payment of $130,000 to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in return for her silence about an alleged one-night stand with Trump in 2006.

But as Avenatti has savored the publicity from the case, his firm’s financial troubles have deepened, mainly because of Frank’s $10-million judgment. Frank has alleged that Eagan Avenatti cheated him out of millions of dollars in pay, a charge that Avenatti denies.

Eagan Avenatti agreed to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors in March 2017 after a Florida vendor filed a petition alleging the firm had failed to pay a $28,700 invoice. At the time, Avenatti & Associates, owned solely by Avenatti, held 75% of the firm’s equity, and the rest belonged to San Francisco attorney Michael Eagan.

Avenatti & Associates now owns 100% of Eagan Avenatti, Avenatti said Wednesday.

As part of a court-approved settlement to resolve the bankruptcy, Avenatti personally guaranteed in December that the firm would pay Frank $4.85 million. When the firm missed the first of two promised installments, Frank sued Avenatti personally in state court to collect the money.

The settlement also enabled Frank to get the $10million Bankruptcy Court judgment against Eagan Avenatti.