Michael Avenatti Found Guilty in Theft of Stormy Daniels Book Advance

(Bloomberg) -- Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who represented adult-film star Stormy Daniels in an explosive lawsuit against Donald Trump when he was president, was found guilty of ripping off his former client.

A federal jury in Manhattan on Friday found Avenatti, 50, guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for intercepting about $300,000 in advance payments to Daniels from a publisher as part of a deal for her memoir.

He was ordered to surrender to U.S. Marshals by Monday at 5 p.m. in Los Angeles and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 24. Avenatti faces a maximum prison term of 22 years.

“I am very disappointed in the jury's verdict,” Avenatti said outside the courtroom. “I am looking forward to a full adjudication of all of the issues on appeal.”

It's the second time Avenatti has been convicted since his lawsuit against Trump gave him a national profile. In 2020, another Manhattan jury found him guilty of trying to extort $25 million from Nike Inc. during settlement talks on behalf of another client. The start of his 2 1/2 year prison term in that case has been delayed by the pandemic and scheduling conflicts.

One of those conflicts has been a third criminal case in federal court near Los Angeles, where he's accused of stealing millions from other clients. A judge earlier declared a mistrial in that case, and Avenatti has appealed an order for a new trial, claiming misconduct by prosecutors.

Daniels was the government's star witness in the theft case, testifying that Avenatti stole her money and lied to her about it for months. Avenatti added to the drama of the trial by representing himself and cross-examining his former friend and client, seeking to portray her as an unhinged liar.

After the verdict, Avenatti said he doesn't regret representing himself.

Avenatti shot to fame representing Daniels when she sued Trump, with whom she claims to have had a sexual relationship a decade before he became president. Daniels sought to invalidate a non-disclosure agreement she signed after receiving a $130,000 hush-money payment just before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, while Avenatti has argued the three cases brought against him during his administration are political payback.

Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer who arranged the hush payment and now is a fierce critic of the former president, said following the verdict that justice has been served. Cohen attended the start of the trial.

“Michael Avenatti has shown himself to be what I have always known him to be…a conman, a liar and a thief,” Cohen said in a text message.

Avenatti, who's been under house arrest at a friend's home in Venice, California, for much of the pandemic, has long claimed he was targeted by the U.S. Justice Department during the Trump administration as payback for the Daniels lawsuit.

Avenatti had asked for a mistrial earlier on Friday after a juror was reportedly refusing to take part in the deliberations. The jury deliberated for about 16 hours before reaching the verdict.

Friday's verdict “is another step in Avenatti's fall from the heavens and back to the real world,” said Michael Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Washington, who leads the white-collar litigation practice at Cole Schotz PC. It's “often a bad idea” for people to represent themselves, he said.