Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti has been found guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a trial involving former client Stormy Daniels
Prosecutors alleged that Avenatti -- who helped negotiate the $800,000 advance for Daniels' October 2018 book"Full Disclosure" -- defrauded his former client by instructing her literary agent to send two of the installments of the advance totaling nearly $300,000 to an account controlled by him, rather than directly to Daniels, without her knowledge.
Jurors heard from the literary agent, Luke Janklow, who testified that Avenatti funneled contact about the book deal financials around Daniels to him, at times telling Janklow not to answer Daniels' messages. Prosecutors also presented emails and text messages mapping the paper trail of Avenatti's efforts to redirect the payments to the account he controlled. Daniels testified for about seven hours across two trial days during the government's case.
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