A Spin-Off from the Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump Scandal
Some may recall the Stormy Daniels-Donald Trump controversy during the Trump presidency. The news first broke through the Wall Street Journal reporting in January 2018 that Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s lawyer paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).[1] The payment was made before the 2016 Election to prevent her from disclosing her previous affair with Trump. This scandal raised various questions. First of which was the validity of the NDA.[2] Daniels argued that she was forced into signing the NDA at the time with threats of physical harm. She also argued that the NDA was invalid due to Trump not having signed the agreement. Besides that, there was the issue of whether the payment had violated federal campaign finance laws due to non-disclosure of the payment and suspicion that campaign funds may have been used for the payment.[3] This has still not been resolved as the Federal Election Commission abandoned an inquiry into the issue due to a 2-2 vote.
Stormy Daniels filed various lawsuits, firstly that the NDA agreement was not valid, secondly regarding defamatory statements made by Trump against her, and a latter ancillary lawsuit that Cohen colluded with her previous attorney when he negotiated the payment for the NDA. Michael Avenatti represented Daniels during this series of legal battles against Trump and Cohen. He had gained significant traction during that period as the lawyer of Daniels and an outspoken critic of Trump.
However, a Manhattan federal court convicted Avenatti for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft on the 5th of February 2022.[4] 12 jurors unanimously held that while representing Daniels, Avenatti stole $300,000 from Stormy Daniels. Daniels was to receive a $800,000 advance from literary agents for her book ‘Full Disclosure’ which was a tell-all book about Trump. Avenatti instead tricked the literary agents to pay $300,000 into a bank account he controlled without Daniels’ knowledge. He paid back half of the money but spent the rest on expenses such as plane tickets, restaurant meals, lease of a Ferrari, etc. Avenatti was initially represented by separate legal counsel but then later chose to represent himself on the matter. He argued that Daniels was unstable and delusional by reference to her belief in the paranormal and that he was essential to her fight against Trump and her being awarded the book deal to begin with.[5] However, these arguments were not persuasive in the evaluation that he defrauded Daniels.
Sentencing has been set for the 24th of May. The maximum sentence is 20 years for wire fraud and 2 years for identity theft. Avenatti has announced that he intends to appeal the decision.
[1] Michael Rothfield and Joe Palazzolo, ‘Trump Lawyer Arranged $130,000 Payment for Adult-Film Star’s Silence’ (Wall Street Hournal, 12 January 2018) <https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lawyer-arranged-130-000-payment-for-adult-film-stars-silence-1515787678> Accessed 8 February 2022
[2] Sarah Fitzpatrick, ‘Stormy Daniels sues Trump, says ‘hush agreement’ invalid because he never signed’ (NBC News, 6 March 2018) < https://web.archive.org/web/20180307013434/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/stormy-daniels-sues-trump-says-hush-agreement-invalid-because-he-n854246> Accessed 8 February 2022
[3] NPR, Watchdog Questions Whether Trump's Payment Is A Campaign Finance Violation (NPR, 3 May 2018) < https://www.npr.org/2018/05/03/608291878/watchdog-questions-whether-trumps-reimbursement-is-a-campaign-finance-violation> Accessed 8 February 2022
[4] Tom Hays and Larry Neumeister, ‘Michael Avenatti convicted of stealing from Stormy Daniels’ (AP News, 5 February 2022) < https://apnews.com/article/michael-avenatti-stormy-daniels-trial-convicted-488001c7168ee17e6fa903f784909123> Accessed 8 Feberuary 2022
[5] Luc Cohen, Porn star Stormy Daniels testifies ex-lawyer Michael Avenatti ‘lied to me’ (Reuters, 28 January 2022) < https://www.reuters.com/world/us/porn-star-stormy-daniels-testifies-against-fallen-lawyer-michael-avenatti-2022-01-27/> Accessed 8 February 2022
