A lawyer for Michael Avenatti claimed the disgraced attorney is being held in a New York jail cell that once housed Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Avenatti’s attorney, Scott Srebnick, said his client has been kept in his cell for 24 hours a day in solitary confinement, aside from attorney visits and medical exams, and the “current conditions of his confinement” at the Metropolitan Correctional Center are preventing Avenatti and his legal team from properly preparing for the case.
“He is in a cell reportedly once occupied by El Chapo, on a floor that houses individuals charged with terrorism offenses,” Srebnick wrote in a letter to New York District Judge Paul G. Gardephe on Monday.
“There is an officer outside his cell 24 hours a day and two cameras focused on him,” he added. “The temperature in his cell feels like it is in the mid-40s. He is forced to sleep with three blankets. Not surprisingly, he has been having great difficulty functioning. He has not been permitted to shave.”
Srebnick requested that Avenatti be moved to general population, where he would be allowed more freedom to confer with his legal counsel.
Avenatti, 48, is accused of stealing millions of dollars from clients and lying about his income to the IRS, creditors, and a bankruptcy court. He was arrested last week in California on accusations that he violated the terms of his bail after prosecutors said he defrauded and concealed money from creditors while out on bail. The lawyer, who once represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her case against President Trump and his former fixer Michael Cohen, was then transported from California to New York.
If convicted of all the charges against him, Avenatti could be sentenced to more than 300 years in prison. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, where Avenatti is being held, is under intense scrutiny after financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, killed himself last year as he awaited trial there.
