MANHATTAN (CN) — “He was pretending to fight for Ms. Daniels when he was the one scamming her,” federal prosecutors said on Wednesday, delivering summations in the criminal trial of Michael Avenatti, the once-high profile California lawyer accused of helping himself to nearly $300,000 that his former client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, was advanced by her publishers.
“The defendant was a lawyer who stole from his own client,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman said in a one-hour closing argument Wednesday morning. “She thought he was her advocate, but he betrayed her and he told lies to cover it all up.”
Closings followed five days of testimony from government witnesses in support of criminal indictment alleging that Avenatti diverted nearly $300,000 from the $800,000 that a publisher had advanced to Daniels for her tell-all 2018 autobiography, and then “strung her along with lie after lie after lie” to keep her in the dark about his fraud.
Installments of the advance payments Daniels had earned were rerouted to a trust account Avenatti controlled. Prosecutors allege that Avenatti accomplished this by forging Daniels' signature in an August 2018 letter to her literary agent.
If found guilty on counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, Avenatti, who turns 51 later this month, faces up to 22 years in prison.
After wavering for days about whether he would testify in his own defense — and being cautioned by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman that brash lawyer’s 2020 conviction for extorting Nike and general track record of dishonesty would be fair game during the government's cross-examination — Avenatti rested his defense case on Tuesday morning without calling any witnesses.
Avenatti, who is suspended from practicing law in California, elected last week to abandon his public attorneys from Federal Defenders of New York and represent himself for the remainder of the trial in Manhattan federal court.
"What he says is not evidence," Judge Furman advised jurors on Wednesday morning prior to Avenatti's closing summation, explaining that the defendant's closing argument is not his testimony.
Prosecutors said that Avenatti texted Daniels “let me check” about missing installments of book advance while he spent her publishing money on car payments, airfare, his ex-wife, his girlfriend and payroll for his debt-ridden law firm.
“He and his law firm were broke,” Sobelman said Wednesday. “That explains why he stole Ms. Daniels’ money, but it doesn’t excuse his crimes.”
“He spent the stolen money on himself, his law firm and other close to him,” the prosecutor said during closing arguments.
Avenatti told jurors during his closing summation he understands if some of them admire Stormy Daniels, because he once did too. "I was her advocate. I was her champion,” he said. “The evidence shows that I put it all on the line for Ms. Daniels because I believed in her, and I wanted to help her. I too admired her, perhaps more than anyone else in her life."
“Let me be clear,” he said later, briefly referring to himself in third-person, “Michael Avenatti never committed the crime of wire fraud.
“Michael Avenatti never committed the crime of aggravated identity theft,” he continued. “There is insufficient evidence to show that Michael Avenatti ever intended to harm Stormy Daniels. There is insufficient evidence to show that Michael Avenatti ever sent an unauthorized and false letter to Luke Janklow to get the money for himself.”
Throughout the trial, Avenatti repeatedly directed witnesses and jurors to the attorney-client fee agreement he signed with Daniels in early 2018 — a document that he insists entitles him to “a reasonable percentage to be agreed upon” of the proceeds from any book or media opportunity.
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