Monterey Herald

Avenatti gets 4 years for cheating Stormy Daniels

- By Bobby Caina Calvan and Larry Neumeister

NEW YORK >> Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for stealing book proceeds from Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who catapulted him to fame as he represente­d her in courtrooms and cable news programs during her legal battles with then-President Donald Trump.

The California lawyer, currently incarcerat­ed, learned his fate in Manhattan federal court, where Judge Jesse M. Furman said the sentence will mean that Avenatti will spend another 2 1/2 years in prison on top of the 2 1/2 years he is already serving after another fraud conviction.

The judge said Avenatti's crime against Daniels was made “out of desperatio­n” when his law firm was struggling. He called Avenatti's behavior “craven and egregious” and blamed it on “blind ambition.” He also required Avenatti to pay $148,000 in restitutio­n and forfeit the roughly $297,000 that prosecutor­s say he stole from Daniels.

The judge said he believed the sentence “will send a message to lawyers” that, if they go astray, they will lose their profession and their liberty.

Avenatti wearing a drab beige prison uniform, choked up several times as he delivered a lengthy statement before the sentence was announced, saying he had “disappoint­ed scores of people and failed in a cataclysmi­c way.”

“I have destroyed my career, my relationsh­ips and my reputation and have done collateral damage to my family and my life,” he said. “There is serious doubt as to how or if I will ever recover any semblance of a normal life.”

Avenatti, 51, said he chose to represent Daniels beginning in February 2018 because she was an underdog and no one else would.

“Nobody could have predicted the success we would have and the notoriety that would follow,” he said.

After the sentencing, Avenatti, shackled at the feet, hugged his lawyers and then shuffled out of court.

At trial earlier this year, Avenatti represente­d himself, cross-examining his former client for hours about their experience­s in early 2018, when she signed a book deal that provided an $800,000 payout. Prosecutor­s said he illegally pocketed about $300,000 of her advance on “Full Disclosure,” published in fall 2018.

The book's publicatio­n came at a time when Avenatti's law practice was failing financiall­y even as he appeared regularly on cable television news channels, attacking Trump. Avenatti represente­d Daniels in lawsuits meant to free her from a $130,000 hush payment she received shortly before the 2016 presidenti­al election to remain silent about a tryst she said she had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denied it.

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