Once oozing bravado and celebrity, 50-year-old attorney Michael Avenatti awaits another fraud trial and an appellate proceeding, while New York prosecutors demand that he serve out his two-years-six-month sentence July 8 for trying to extort $25 million from Nike Inc. Avenatti’s attorneys filed a motion Friday to keep Stormy Daniels former lawyer in home detention until at least Feb. 28, 2022, until he can complete other legal matters. Avenatti’s recent fraud trial involving stealing money from clients’ trust accounts ended in mistrial Aug, 24, leaving the once high-profile CNN star out of jail for the moment. New York prosecutors aren’t likely to convince a judge to remand the hustler-attorney in custody, until he finishes all his legal matters, something that could take awhile. Avenatti still hasn’t defended his trial with Stormy Daniels, accusing her former attorney of stealing her book advance..
Avenatti found a friendly home at Trump-hating CNN who put him on the air practically nightly, listening to Avenatti preach to choir of going after former President Donald Trump. Avenatti’s ego was so inflated in 2018 he told the CNN that he was considering running against Trump in 2020. CNN lapped it up, not knowing, or caring, that they were dealing with a big-time con artist, someone willing to say and do anything for more air-time. CNN gladly obliged Avenatti’s handlers making him in instant CNN celebrity, despite his legal shenanigans. Avenatti not only tried to extort Nike Inc., he defrauded many of his clients, stealing cash out of their legal trust accounts so he could jet set with the girlfriend around the world. Avenatti’s lawyers want an indefinite stay of his Nike prison sentence. With lawsuits against Avenatti coming out of the woodwork, he could be tied up for years.
No judge is going to order Avenatti to serve out his sentence while he faces so many legal entanglements, including a retrial on fraud charges and a matter pending before a federal appeals court in San Francisco. “In light of the foregoing, there is no longer a discrete, time-specific basis for continued delay of the defendants surrender . . .” said New York prosecutors. “Moreover, it is in the interest of justice for the defendant to commence serving the term of incarceration that this Court imposed for his serious offenses, including defrauding his client,” said New York prosecutors. Whatever the excuse to put Avenatti away, no judge is going to interfere with his rights to prepare for his next legal battle, including his retrial for defrauding clients and the pending case of robbing Stormy Daniels of her book advance. Avenatti’s no shrinking violent when it comes to defending himself.
After his conviction for extorting Nike Inc., Avenatti continued to protest his innocence, despite overwhelming evidence, including tape recordings, of the mafia-like lawyer telling Nike executives he’d go to press, with all his celebrity earned at CNN, if they didn’t pay him $25 million. Getting only two-and-a-half-years was already a big win for Avenatti who isn’t likely to spend a year in federal prison. CNN made Avenatti a star, giving him all the air time he wanted on all its prime time shows, including Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo. All hosts treated Avenatti like royalty for going after Trump with so much zeal he promised to run for president. CNN was duped into thinking Avenatti was legitimate, not bothering to vet the many clients that came forward to accuse him of fraud. All that mattered to CNN CEO Jeff Zucker was that he got good ratings with CNN’s audience.
When-and-if Avenatti faces trial in January 2022 for stealing all of Stormy Daniels royalties is anyone’s guess. Chances are the clever con artist will convince the judge to postpone any pending litigation until after his mistrial in Los Angeles is rescheduled or his appeals court case concludes. CNN knew that Avenatti was an untrustworthy con artist but put him on anyway because of their hatred of Trump. Trump’s 2016 election win was largely seen as a slap in the face to what Trump called the fake news business. Only by destroying him on the airwaves did CNN think they could salvage their credibility in the wake of his Nov. 3, 2016 election victory. U.S. media, with the exception of some at Fox News, joined together to destroy Trump politically before the 2020 presidential election. By the time the election rolled around, Trump was the most hated man in America.
Avenatti personifies the fake news media, willing to raise anyone’s profile in order to retaliate against former President Donald Trump. Whether he runs again in 2020 or not, he still faces a continued onslaught of fake news, including whatever notoriety comes from the House Select Committee’s attempts to redo Trump’s impeachment trial for starting the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. House Democrats lost their impeachment case in the Senate Feb. 13, 2021, yet decided that the House Select Committee could once against try him a kind of double-jeopardy. CNN would have kept Avenatti on the payroll indefinitely had it not been for his legal troubles. Judging by how the took back their chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin after he exposed himself on Zoom, Zucker will probably give Anevnatti another shot, especially if Trump decides, like his former Chief of State Mark Meadows thinks, to run again in 2024.
