National Review
Michael Avenatti, the former attorney for Stormy Daniels, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday for stealing nearly $300,000 in book advance money from the adult film star. The sentencing comes after a federal jury convicted Avenatti in February of aggravated identity fraud and wire fraud, for which he faced up to two years in prison and 20 years in prison, respectively. The jury found Avenatti stole two advance payments from Daniels in 2018 from a book deal she signed following the revelation that she received $130,000 in hush money from former President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to remain quiet about an alleged affair she and Trump had before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the affair. Avenatti also previously received a 2.5 year sentence in a separate case for trying to extort Nike out of $25 million. He will serve a portion of the new sentence alongside the jail sentence he is already serving from the Nike extortion case. In total, he faces five years in prison, according to Reuters.
