Much to the angst of Joy Behar and Ana Navarro, creepy porn lawyer Michael Avenatti’s presidential aspirations were hit with what may be a fatal blow on Thursday when the disgraced attorney admitted that he stole millions of dollars from clients.
Avenatti pleaded guilty in a California courtroom to four counts of wire fraud for defrauding clients and one count of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service on a coffee business he once operated, according to Reuters. The 51-year-old attorney faces up to 83 years in prison, but is expected to get a much lighter sentence.
“U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, accepted the plea, and scheduled Avenatti’s sentencing for Sept. 19,” the news agency reported.
The new sentence follows on the heels of Avenatti, who was featured frequently as a favored guest on CNN and MSNBC, being hit with a 4-year sentence after he was found guilty of defrauding porn star Stormy Daniels — of Trump fame — out of $300,000. According to the Justice Department, he “stole two installments of Daniels’ book advance, totaling $297,500.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams announced that prison sentence on June 2, after Avenatti was found guilty on February 4, 2022, following a two-week jury trial.
“Lawyers have a duty to be loyal and advocates for their clients. Far from being a loyal advocate for his client, Michael Avenatti stole his client’s identity and her money in order to line his own pockets,” the prosecutor said in a statement. “Now, Avenatti will serve a substantial prison sentence for his brazen crimes and betrayal of his client.”
“I have destroyed my career, my relationships, and my reputation,” Avenatti said after that sentence. “I’ve brought embarrassment and ridicule upon myself and innocent third parties, including my family, my children, my friends, and the legal profession.”
Avenatti, choking up while addressing Judge Furman:
“I’ve brought embarrassment and ridicule upon myself and innocent third parties, including my family, my children, my friends and the legal profession.”
— Ben Feuerherd (@benfeuerherd) June 2, 2022
Last year, on July 8, 2021, Avenatti was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for trying to extort Nike for up to $25 million, threatening the company with bad publicity.
U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe called Avenatti’s conduct “outrageous” in that case, saying that he “had become drunk on the power of his platform, or what he perceived the power of his platform to be. He had become someone who operated as if the laws and the rules that applied to everyone else didn’t apply to him.”
Courtesy of the liberal media, of course, which could not get enough of his Trump-bashing antics.
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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