‘Creepy porn lawyer’ Avenatti charged with defrauding his client Stormy Daniels

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for adult actress Stormy Daniels once relentlessly promoted by mainstream media as the nemesis of President Donald Trump, has been indicted for identity theft and defrauding Daniels.

Federal prosecutors in New York announced new charges against Avenatti on Wednesday, accusing the spotlight-hogging lawyer of engaging in identity theft and attempting to defraud Daniels by taking money she was due from a book deal. This is on top of the charges he is already facing over an alleged scheme to extort $20 million from Nike.

Though Daniels isn’t named in the court filing, details of the case make it clear she was the client Avenatti is accused of defrauding. The actress fired Avenatti back in March, having lost both lawsuits against Trump and been ordered to pay legal expenses.

Daniels had sued Trump over a 2016 non-disclosure agreement and for alleged defamation. The deal, negotiated by Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, reportedly involved a payment to Daniels not to disclose an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

This was leveraged against Cohen by the Mueller investigation, pressuring him into pleading guilty of violating campaign finance laws and turning witness against Trump. Despite the hopes of Avenatti and his media promoters, however, the case failed to damage the Trump presidency.

For months, Avenatti was a constant presence on cable channels, soaking up the praise from anti-Trump politicians and media figures to the point of exploring a 2020 presidential candidacy. Between March and November 2018, he had made more than 200 TV appearances.

Avenatti also inserted himself into the confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, claiming his client Julie Swetnick had proof Kavanaugh had taken part in "rape parties" during the 1980s. Swetnick herself walked back most of the allegations in a MSNBC interview, and the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a criminal referral about Avenatti to the Department of Justice.

The lawyer even fancied himself Trump’s nemesis, tweeting disparagingly at the president and predicting his son Donald Trump Junior would be indicted by the end of 2018.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson was one of the rare skeptics, dubbing Avenatti a “creepy porn lawyer” and facing off against him in a memorable interview last September.

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