Michael Avenatti lied to Stormy Daniels and stole her money, prosecutors say

Federal prosecutors painted disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti as a serial liar and calculating thief who stole nearly $300,000 from his client, Stormy Daniels, as his criminal trial in Manhattan kicked off Monday.

“This case is about a lawyer who stole from his client, a lawyer who lied to cover up for the scheme. That lawyer is the defendant, Michael Avenatti,” Assistant US Attorney Andrew Rohrbach told jurors in his opening statement.

Rohrbach accused Avenatti of hatching a plan to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars in book advance money from Daniels.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, inked a book deal in 2018 after it emerged that she was paid $130,000 in hush money to keep quiet about her alleged affair with President Donald Trump.

The book’s publisher agreed to pay Daniels $800,000 in four installments for the book — but two of those payments were swiped by Avenatti, Rohrbach alleged.

The embattled lawyer forged Daniels’ signature on a letter to her literary agent, requesting the advance payments be deposited in a bank account he controlled, Rohrbach added.

The fake letter worked, the feds allege, and two of the payments — totaling nearly $300,000 — were deposited into the account and spent by Avenatti.

Avenatti lied to Daniels when she asked him about the missing funds, Rohrbach said.

“He lied. He told her the publisher was being slow. Told her he was working on it. [But] he had her money and he was spending it,” he said.

Avenatti blew through the cash on day-to-day expenses such as payroll for his law firm, but also used some of the funds on travel, food, dry cleaning and a lease paymen... (Read more)

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