BREAKING: Federal prosecutors charge Michael Avenatti with defrauding the client who made him famous: porn star Stormy Daniels.
FILE - In this April 16, 2018 file photo, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, left, stands with her lawyer Michael Avenatti as she speaks outside federal court, in New York. Avenatti, the attorney who rocketed to fame through his representation of Daniels in her battles with President Donald Trump, was charged Wednesday, May 22, 2019, with ripping her off.
Daniels isn’t named in the court filing, but the details of the case, including the date her book was released, make it clear that she is the client involved.“No monies relating to Ms. Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled. She received millions of dollars worth of legal services and we spent huge sums in expenses. She directly paid only $100.00 for all that she received. I look forward to a jury hearing the evidence,” he wrote.
Avenatti was previously charged in New York with trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening to expose claims that the shoemaker paid off high school basketball players to steer them to Nike-sponsored colleges. And in Los Angeles, he’s facing a multicount federal indictment alleging that he stole millions of dollars from clients, didn’t pay taxes, committed bank fraud and lied during bankruptcy proceedings.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, initially hired Avenatti to handle a lawsuit she filed last year in which she sought to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement she’d signed with Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen in exchange for $130,000. “Far from zealously representing his client, Avenatti, as alleged, instead engaged in outright deception and theft, victimizing rather than advocating for his client,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in news release.Daniels raised concerns with Avenatti about late payments around the time her book, “Full Disclosure,” was published in October, according to the indictment.
Daniels began publicly raising concerns about Avenatti’s conduct in November. In a statement, she said Avenatti had launched a fundraising effort to raise money for her legal case without telling her. She also said he had filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump, on her behalf, against her wishes.
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