New York Prosecutors asked Friday for a judge to order California lawyer Michael Avenatti into a 2 1/2 year sentence. This is more than one year after he was convicted in attempting to extort as much as $25 million from Nike.
Avenatti 50 was allowed to report to prison but was later convicted in California of fraud. The trial was canceled.
In a July letter to the judge that sentenced Avenatti, Manhattan federal prosecutors stated that Avenatti’s uncertain trial date in California is no excuse for not reporting to prison.
This file photo of Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ attorney, is taken in New York on April 26, 2018. He leaves after the hearing for Michael Cohen (Trump’s personal attorney). (AP Photo/Mary
Avenatti was a porn star Stormy Danis’ lawyer in lawsuits against President Donald Trump in 2018. He was often seen on cable television programs.
Prosecutors pointed out that the Nov. 2 retrial date had been postponed recently and that issues before a San Francisco federal appels court could delay it for months.
Stormy Daniels arrives in Los Angeles for the 49th Annual Grammy Awards. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
“The foregoing means that there is no discrete or time-specific reason for the defendant to continue delaying his surrender. Prosecutors wrote that the defendant should begin serving the sentence of incarceration this Court has imposed for him for serious offenses including defrauding his client.
Avenatti represented a California basketball coach in the Nike case. Prosecutors said that he threatened to use media exposure to muddy Nike’s image if they didn’t pay him millions.
Attorneys for Avenatti did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.
Avenatti was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with defrauding Daniels. She was accused of failing to pay Daniels hundreds of thousands of dollars she owed through a book deal. Avenatti, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, will be tried in January.
