Donald Trump foe Michael Avenatti gets 4 years in jail for defrauding porn star Stormy Daniels
- He was earlier convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after embezzling nearly US$300,000 in book proceeds intended for the actress
- Daniels was the brash California lawyer’s most famous client, and he took on the sitting US president on her behalf
Michael Avenatti, the brash California lawyer who took on then US President Donald Trump, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for defrauding his best-known former client, the porn actress Stormy Daniels.
A federal jury convicted Avenatti in February of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after a two-week trial, agreeing with prosecutors that he embezzled nearly US$300,000 in book proceeds intended for Daniels.
US District Judge Jesse Furman imposed the sentence in federal court in Manhattan, calling Avenatti’s conduct “brazen and egregious”.
But he said guidelines calling for Avenatti, 51, to serve a sentence of five or six years were “unreasonable”, in part due to Avenatti’s prior successful legal career.
Avenatti, who appeared in court wearing prison garb and ankle shackles, recounted a string of legal victories he had secured for clients he called “underdogs”, and disputed prosecutors’ assertion that he took on Daniels as a client to gain a national platform for himself.
“No one else had the guts to take her case,” Avenatti said before Furman handed down his sentence, speaking from the courtroom lectern with a US marshal standing beside him. “I believed we could take down a sitting US president who was the biggest threat to our democracy in modern times.”