More Avenatti charges, this time for stealing Stormy Daniels' money?

We got a good look inside the mind of celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti thanks to his ill-advised Vanity Fair interview. Or perhaps we should say, what’s left of his mind. As it turns out, he’s booked for some other appearances, but they don’t include journalists. Prosecutors are adding some additional charges to his rapidly growing rap sheet, and these involve the person who really launched him to infamy recently. Porn actress Stormy Daniels may have gotten shortchanged in her dealings with her attorney. In fact, it’s being reported that he may have soaked her to the tune of $300K. (ABC News)

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Federal prosecutors are expected to charge Michael Avenatti with additional financial crimes Wednesday, sources briefed on the case told ABC News.

The new charges will accuse Avenatti of misappropriating money that was supposed to be paid to Stormy Daniels when Avenatti was representing the adult film actress in her public battle against President Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen, the sources said.

The charges are to be filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan who have already accused Avenatti of extortion in a case involving Nike.

Avenatti on Tuesday evening, without prompting, wrote on Twitter that he expected this.

Not for nothing, but if there’s anyone else out there who has ever been represented with this guy, you might want to go back and do an audit of your books. Just saying…

His ham-handed efforts to extort Nike, caught on high definition video, were beyond outrageous, so I suppose there little reason to be shocked if he winds up having defrauded some of his clients. Of course, if he was skimming money from Stormy Daniels, he now has additional problems. She’s shown that she’s not averse to being litigious when the opportunity presents itself and she’s not afraid of a few scandalous headlines.

There’s little point calling anything Avenatti says “strange” by now, but I was still left scratching my head over his response to the new charges. First, he said he’d been “expecting” the indictments. Then he turned around and proclaimed that he would once again be pleading not guilty and that the entire claim was baseless. But if that’s the case, why would he be expecting to be indicted?

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I suppose it’s possible that he’s just trying to set up an insanity plea, but then again, maybe he really is losing it. All we can be sure of is that Stormy Daniels will be rushing in front of every person with a camera and a microphone any moment now.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | December 16, 2024
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