Disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti left jail on Friday after a judge ordered a temporary release amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Avenatti, who formerly represented adult film star Stormy Daniels against President Trump, left a Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center at approximately 11 a.m., according to his lawyer Dean Steward.
“We’re really gratified that the judge took the action that he did,” Avenatti’s lawyer said to Fox News in a statement. “He recognized the seriousness of the situation.”
Avenatti was placed in quarantine for the past 14 days at the correctional center to avoid infection of the novel coronavirus. He is required to return to jail in 90 days.
U.S. District Judge James Selna said Avenatti will be accompanied on a flight to Southern California, where he will remain at a friend’s house for three months while wearing an ankle bracelet. There, he will also be barred from accessing the internet but will be able to see his wife.
A jury in a New York federal court determined that Avenatti, 48, was guilty of three charges in February: transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort, attempted extortion, and honest services wire fraud.
Prosecutors said the disgraced lawyer attempted to extort between $15 million and $22.5 million from the company “by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met.”
“Today, a unanimous jury found Michael Avenatti guilty of misusing his client’s information in an effort to extort tens of millions of dollars from the athletic apparel company Nike,” said Geoffrey Berman, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement.
“While the defendant may have tried to hide behind legal terms and a suit and tie, the jury clearly saw the defendant’s scheme for what it was — an old fashioned shakedown.”
Avenatti additionally faces separate charges of tax, wire, and bank fraud in California and fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in New York for allegedly taking money that was supposed to be paid to Daniels, who claims to have had an affair with Trump. The president has denied the allegation.
