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Avenatti Pleads Not Guilty on All Counts, Trial Set for June
The former progressive activist will take his case to trial.
The infamous former attorney for adult film actress Stormy Daniels pleaded not guilty on all counts Monday in federal court, weeks after being charged with wire fraud, stealing millions from clients, and dodging taxes.
“The 48-year-old [Michael] Avenatti, who was indicted earlier this month on 36 counts including wire and bank fraud, appeared in federal court for an arraignment in Santa Ana, California on Monday. The trial is set to begin on June 25 with a status hearing scheduled for June 15,” according to Fox News.
Prosecutors said that Avenatti embezzled settlement funds from five clients and that he “doled out small portions, sometimes labeling them as advances to prevent thefts from being discovered.”
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Avenatti, who also inserted himself into the Democratic Party’s swarm against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during Kavanaugh”s confirmation hearings, lectured Americans on the “presumption of innocence” in a Monday statement.
“The right to a presumption of innocence and the right to a jury trial are two fundamental rights that our founding fathers demanded when this country was formed over 200 years ago,” the statement said.
Big League Politics reported on Avenatti:
Creepy porn lawyer and known huckster Michael Avenatti has been indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury on 36 charges, ranging from, fraud, embezzlement, and failure to pay taxes, to perjury.
“Avenatti stole millions of dollars from five clients and used a tangled web of shell companies and bank accounts to cover up the theft, the Santa Ana grand jury alleged in an indictment that prosecutors will make public Thursday,” said LA Times.
The attorney, known for his representation of adult film actress Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump – which he lost – allegedly embezzled a $4 million settlement from a mentally ill paraplegic client named Geoffrey Ernest Johnson. The report said that Avenatti his the money from Johnson for years.
“In 2017, Avenatti received $2.75 million in proceeds from another client’s legal settlement, but concealed that too, the indictment says,” the report said. “The next day, he put $2.5 million of that money into the purchase of a private jet for Passport 420, LLC, a company he effectively owned, according to prosecutors.”
If convicted on all charges, Avenatti faces up to 335 years in prison.
CNN once promoted him as a 2020 presidential candidate.
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