Attorney Michael Avenatti walks away after addressing the media outside the Santa Ana federal courthouse in Santa Ana, California on May 7, 2019.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images
Michael Avenatti pleaded not guilty to a charge of ripping off about $300,000 in book sales belonging to a former legal client, porn star Stormy Daniels, at the first of a series of appearances Tuesday for criminal cases facing the embattled attorney in New York federal court.
Avenatti is due to be arraigned later Tuesday on other federal charges related to his alleged attempt to extort $20 million or more from athletic apparel giant Nike. He is also charged in a third, 36-count indictment in federal court in California with stealing other client funds, tax crimes, bank frand, false testimony, and aggravated identity fraud charges.
At his first court appearance Tuesday, Avenatti, who remains free on a $300,000 personal recognizance bond, was ordered by U.S. District Judge James Cott to have no contact with Daniels, whom he represented last year in connection with her various legal battles against President Donald Trump.
Avenatti additionally had his travel restricted by Cott, who told the attorney to stay within the Central District of California, which includes the lawyer’s residence in Los Angeles, in New York City, or in the Big Apple’s surrounding counties in lower New York state.
If he wants to travel elsewhere within the United States, Avenatti first must notify federal authorities.
His not guilty plea was entered on his behalf by his lawyer, Sylvie Levine, while Avenatti looked on.
Avenatti, 49, last week was charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the alleged theft from Daniels, whose signature he is accused of forging to obtain money due her from the sales of her book, “Full Disclosure.”
An indictment accuses him of spending some of the money he allegedly swindled from Daniels on a lease payment for his Ferrari, travel expenses, dry cleaning and $56,000 in payroll at his law firm.
The charge came two months after federal prosecutors in Manhattan and California separately charges him with the alleged Nike extortion and swindling clients.
Avenatti has denied wrongdoing in all of the cases.
In a statement after he was charged in the Daniels case, Avenatti said: “No monies relating to Ms. Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled.”
“She received millions of dollars worth of legal services and we spent huge sums in expenses. She directly paid only $100.00 for all that she received. I look forward to a jury hearing the evidence,” Avenatti said.
Daniels last year sued Trump and his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen in connection with a hush-money deal she signed with them shortly before the 2016 presidential election to obtain her silence about her alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denies have had sex with her.
Avenatti’s appearance for the arraignment was brief: the hearing began at 12:13 p.m. ET in the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan and ended about 20 minutes later.
But he is due back in the same court at 2:15 p.m. for a pre-trial conference in the same case.
At 3:30 p.m., Avenatti is due to be arraigned on charges of trying to force Nike to fork over tens of millions of dollars in exchange for him not going public with allegations that the company was facilitating payments to promising high school basketball players.
