Michael Avenatti wants to hire lawyer who specializes in ‘hopeless’ cases
Disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti — who faces coast-to-coast indictments charging that he ripped off clients and tried to extort Nike — has lined up a defense attorney who bills himself as taking on “hopeless” cases.
Miami lawyer Scott Srebnick, one of two attorneys representing Avenatti in the Nike case, was in Manhattan federal court Tuesday as his publicity-loving client had to appear before three separate judges.
On his Web site, Srebnick touts his experience representing “lawyers, bankers, and corporate executives charged with serious felony offenses.”
He also bills himself as “a ‘lawyer’s lawyer,’ to whom other lawyers often turn when a case seems especially complex or even hopeless.”
The feds say the Nike charges are backed up by hidden-camera video and wiretaps.
On Tuesday, Avenatti, 48, was first arraigned on charges that he stole nearly $300,000 in advance payments to porn star and former client Stormy Daniels for her memoir, “Full Disclosure.” He pleaded not guilty.
Then he was before Judge Deborah Batts for a pre-trial conference in the same criminal case, where he was represented by a court-appointed federal defender, Sylvie Levine. She told the judge her client was in the process of finalizing arrangements to replace her with private counsel.
And Srebnick then introduced himself to Batts and asked permission to file a motion on Avenatti’s behalf to transfer the Daniels case to California.
Avenatti also faces prosecution there on charges that include stealing from five clients, and Srebnick said the Golden State was a better place for the Daniels case due to the similarity of the underlying allegations.
“In effect, this is a sixth client that the government alleges was defrauded by the same modus operandi,” Srebnick said.
Prosecutor Matthew Podolsky opposed the request, calling it a “delay tactic” and noting that key witnesses, including Daniels’ publisher, were based in New York.
Batts barred Srebnick from filing the motion, saying Avenatti needed to formally hire him first.
In addition to allegedly defrauding his clients, Avenatti is charged in California with scamming bank loans, evading taxes and lying during a bankruptcy proceeding.
The hearing before Batts marked Avenatti’s second of three Manhattan federal court appearances after surrendering to the feds shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday.
At noon, he was brought into Magistrate Court, where he pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for allegedly duping her literary agent into sending him two payments of $148,750 each.
Avenatti, who shot to fame last year while representing Daniels in connection with her claims of a 2006 affair with President Trump, used cash from “another source” to give Daniels half the money he stole, according to the feds.
Avenatti was freed on a $300,000 bond in the case.
He ended his circuit of court appearances with a late-afternoon arraignment on his indictment in the Nike case, which involves charges of extortion, conspiracy and transmission of interstate communication with intent to extort.
Avenatti told Judge Paul Gardephe he was “100 percent not guilty” of each count, and was released on a $300,000 bond he posted following his arrest in March.
Outside court, Avenatti said he would fight the charges against him, adding: “I am confident that when a jury of my peers passes judgment on my conduct that justice will be done and I will be fully exonerated.”
