Michael Avenatti to face back-to-back arraignments in one day
It’s going to be a tough day Tuesday for disgraced celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti, who faces two nearly back-to-back arraignments in Manhattan federal court.
Avenatti’s first scheduled appearance involves charges that he tried to shake down athletic gear giant Nike for $20 million. He is then set to be arraigned before a different judge for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his former client Stormy Daniels, a porn star who allegedly had an affair with President Trump.
The defendant lawyer told The Post that he will plead not guilty in both cases.
“I want to face a jury in both New York cases as soon as reasonably possible, and when I do, I will be exonerated,” he said in an email last week.
Tuesday’s hearings are part of an effort by federal prosecutors on both the East and West coasts to nail the flashy 48-year-old lawyer.
Last year, Avenatti and Daniels dominated the headlines amid revelations that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, made arrangements for the porn star to be paid $130,000 in exchange for her silence about her alleged affair with Trump.
Avenatti was then indicted in New York last week for allegedly swiping $300,000 that Daniels was supposed to receive for her memoir, “Full Disclosure.” The feds say Avenatti secretly double-crossed his client, cutting and pasting Daniels’ signature from a document and submitting it to her literary agent to divert the proceeds from the book to his own account.
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Those charges were heaped on to allegations that he tried to extort Nike for $20 million on the eve of its quarterly earnings report, claiming he had evidence that executives in the company have been taking part in pay-to-play schemes involving college athletes.
“I’ll go take $10 billion off your client’s market cap … I’m not f–king around,” Avenatti allegedly told Nike, according to court papers.
In Los Angeles, Avenatti is charged with ripping off five more clients, including a paraplegic man, as well as welshing on tax payments and bank loans and lying during bankruptcy proceedings.
Prosecutors say Avenatti used overlapping schemes to prop up a lavish lifestyle that included a pad in Laguna Beach and a $5 million jet, which has been seized.
Avenatti has hired lawyers Scott Srebnick and Jose Quinon, who both represented a Florida man sentenced to prison for stealing money from Venezuelan businesses, according to Reuters.
