Avenatti Gives Michael Cohen Bizarre Greeting at His Fraud Trial
https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-avenatti-gives-michael-cohen-bizarre-greeting-at-his-fraud-trial
When the disgraced attorney—who’s accused of stealing $300,000 from adult film star Stormy Daniels’ book advance—arrived in court, he was met by at least one eager spectator: Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer. Reporters in the courtroom witnessed a peculiar exchange as Avenatti greeted Cohen by inquiring about his “Donald Trump kneepads.” Cohen addressed Avenatti’s remark outside the federal courthouse, declaring, “[Avenatti’s] shown himself to be the dirtbag everybody expected him to be.”
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/24/politics/michael-avenatti-stormy-daniels-trial/index.html
(CNN)Opening statements are set to start Monday in Manhattan in a third criminal case against Michael Avenatti, the once high-flying celebrity lawyer who rose to fame by representing adult-film star Stormy Daniels in her bid to terminate a hush-money deal that silenced her allegations of an affair with former President Donald Trump.
The former lawyer, a pugnacious Trump critic who once considered a presidential run of his own, fell from grace after being hit with three federal indictments in a six-week period in 2019.
Prosecutors allege that Avenatti -- who helped negotiate the $800,000 advance for her September 2018 book "Full Disclosure" -- defrauded Daniels by instructing her literary agent to send two of the installments of the advance totaling nearly $300,000 to an account controlled by him, rather than directly to Daniels.
When her agent told Avenatti that she couldn't do so without Daniels' authorization, Avenatti sent the agent a letter with a forgery of Daniels' signature, according to the indictment. Avenatti then allegedly lied to Daniels, telling her the publisher hadn't made the payments, when in reality he used the money to cover payroll costs for his law firm, Eagan Avenatti LLP; a $3,900 lease payment for a Ferrari; and expenses including dry cleaning, airfare, hotels and car services.