Michael Avenatti, the once high-profile attorney who represented Stormy Daniels in court, has been sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding her.
Avenatti was found guilty in February of pocketing $300,000 from the adult film star’s $800,000 book deal advance, after forging her signature and avoiding inquiries when the missing money was brought up.
After representing himself in court, he was found guilty of wire fraud and identity theft.
According to the Associated Press, Avenatti, who has been in prison for the previous two and a half years for attempting to extort Nike, will serve another two and a half years for this conviction. He gave an emotional statement in a Manhattan courtroom, admitting that he had “disappointed scores of people and failed in a cataclysmic way.”
In 2018, Avenatti rose to national prominence after representing Daniels in her court battle to have a nondisclosure agreement revoked that barred her from speaking publicly about an alleged sexual encounter she had with Donald Trump years before. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, had orchestrated a $130,000 payment for Daniels to stay quiet about her encounter with the then–presidential candidate shortly before the 2016 election.
He briefly became a #resistance star as a result of the case; he was a near-constant fixture on cable news and even pondered a presidential candidacy. However, he soon found himself in legal trouble of his own, including allegations of domestic violence and various fraud cases.
In court on Thursday, Judge Jesse M. Furman said Avenatti was “quite smart and [had] formidable legal skills,” but that his “healthy ambition” eventually turned into “blind ambition,” CNN reported.
Avenatti wrote Daniels an apologetic letter last month, which he shared with the court ahead of his sentencing. The apology, though, was “too little, too late,” according to Furman.
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Avenatti’s actions, according to Furman, were “brazen and egregious,” and he “took advantage of a vulnerable victim given her unorthodox career and somewhat unorthodox beliefs.”
He told Avenatti, “I hope you put your formidable talents to better use.”
