AVENATTI GETS PRISON FOR STEALING BOOK MONEY
Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for stealing book proceeds from Stormy Daniels, the adult film 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 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.
In early 2018, Daniels signed a book deal that provided an $800,000 payout. Prosecutors said Avenatti illegally pocketed about $300,000 of her advance on “Full Disclosure,” published in fall 2018.