Stormy Daniels took the stand and accused her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, of being a thief and a liar.
The porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, told jurors that Aventatti, who has pleaded not guilty in the fraud case in New York, stole nearly $300,000 out of the $800,000 advance on her book deal for her autobiography Full Disclosure and misled her about what he did with the money, according to NBC News.
ANOTHER LOOK AT MICHAEL AVENATTI AND HIS MEDIA ENABLERS
“Michael Avenatti stole from me and lied to me,” Daniels said. She testified that after she did not receive the second and third money installments from the publisher as expected, she texted Avenatti, whom she said claimed he got the funds at his office.
“‘At least we got it,'” she quoted him as saying. “And he said he would deposit it for me.”
Avenatti, who was given permission to represent himself in court Tuesday, asked Daniels if she had any email, text message, or recording as proof that he agreed not to take money from her book deal. She replied with a simple “No.” His cross-examination of Daniels is set to continue Friday morning.
Avenatti, 50, rose to national acclaim in 2018 after he represented Daniels in multiple lawsuits against former President Donald Trump. The lawsuits claimed that Trump’s administration paid Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump 10 years before he ran for office. Trump denies the accusations.
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Avenatti is facing other criminal cases. He was arrested and jailed in January 2020 and has been in home confinement in California since April of that year.
Avenatti was found guilty in 2020 of attempting to extort Nike for up to $25 million and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. He has not started the prison sentence yet. Avenatti represented himself for six weeks in an embezzlement case, which resulted in a mistrial, last year after clients alleged he cheated them out of millions of dollars. Avenatti is awaiting a retrial.
