Adult film star Stormy Daniels revealed that she was initially happy when she found out her former lawyer Michael Avenatti was found guilty of trying to extort Nike.
Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with President Trump and was paid to stay quiet during the election, shared new insight into her former lawyer, who was once lauded as a potential presidential candidate. Last week, Avenatti was found guilty of three charges related to allegations of attempting to extort millions of dollars from Nike.
“My initial reaction [to his conviction] was, ‘high-five, yes!’” Daniels said in an interview with Inside Edition’s Jim Moret on Tuesday. “Then, honestly, a couple days later, I just felt really sad because I guess deep down, maybe some part of me didn’t want to believe all those terrible things about him.”
She continued, “But it’s more of the betrayal than the money. Somebody that I trusted looked me in the face every single day for a year and lied to me.”
Daniels went on to refer to her former attorney as a “monster” who was “actually not a good lawyer. … He made a terrible mess of paperwork, just basic filings and paperwork.”
Avenatti represented Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in a lawsuit meant to void a hush-money agreement she made for the alleged affair with Trump.
In addition to Avenatti’s recent conviction, he still 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.
