Michael Avenatti, the once-swaggering celebrity lawyer who represented adult film star Stormy Daniels in her court battles against President Trump, was resentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison for dodging taxes and stealing millions of dollars from clients.
U.S. District Judge James V. Selna resentenced Avenatti to 135 months — a little more than 11 years — but credited him 40 months for the time he has served in prison for stealing nearly $300,000 from Daniels’ advance on a book contract. That brought his sentence to nearly eight years.
“Avenatti has done many noble and good things in his life, some reflected in this case, but he’s also done great evil for which he must answer,” Selna said. “His actions in this case … show an abandonment of some of the most basic principles of fairness.”
Avenatti pleaded guilty in June 2022 to four counts of wire fraud for stealing money from clients and one count of obstructing collection of payroll taxes from his Seattle coffee business, now defunct.
One of the clients he stole from, Geoffrey Ernest Johnson, was a mentally ill paraplegic man on disability. Selna on Thursday ordered Avenatti to pay around $9 million in restitution to his victims — at least 10, including the Internal Revenue Service and the State Bar of California.
Avenatti, who appeared in court in Santa Ana dressed in a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2022. After he appealed the sentence, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new hearing. The Ninth Circuit found that the trial judge based his decision on calculations of a greater loss than victims actually suffered and gave Avenatti too harsh a sentence.
Prosecutors had sought a little more than 13 years in prison. Avenatti had requested a little more than three.
Ahead of the hearing at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, Selna issued a tentative ruling of 10 years, citing Avenatti’s work helping fellow inmates in prison, including as a suicide watch companion and through tutoring.
But prosecutor Brett Sagel argued that Avenatti was the same person he was when he stole from his clients and called the judge’s proposed sentence “unjust.”
“He is the same unrepentant person who will say or do anything whether truthful or not, if it benefits him,” Sagel said. “He has not changed in the least.”
Margaret Farrand, Avenatti’s federal public defender, said that, from the beginning of his career, Avenatti “has had a part of him that is really seeking to make the world a better place and he is not doing it for money.”
“This is part of who he is, it’s part of what he is — a person that has a good heart and wants to help the world in some way,” Farrand said. His actions while in prison, Farrand said, “shows this is the part of himself he wants to carry on.”
Although Selna had initially proposed a shorter sentence than his final ruling, he appeared particularly swayed by Alexis Gardner, one of Avenatti’s former clients, who spoke at the hearing.
Avenatti admitted stealing from a $2.75-million settlement Hassan Whiteside, Gardner’s former boyfriend and a pro basketball player then with the Miami Heat, agreed to pay Gardner to avoid a potential lawsuit. Avenatti, who during his crime spree drove a Ferrari, used most of that money to buy a private jet.
Gardner was trembling as she stood before Selna, at times pausing to collect herself, noting that it was tough to “have to stand next to my abuser.”
“Eight years ago, I expected a life changing settlement that would give me security and a chance to build my future,” Gardner said. “Instead, Mr. Avenatti misappropriated my funds, and he dictated my fate without my consent, based on choices that he made.”
Gardner called Avenatti a “legal predator” and said if it weren’t for him, she would be a homeowner, would own a car and would have savings.
“This is someone who looked me in my eyes and told me that they were protecting me,” she said. “I think you should give him the most that you can give him because it protects people who are not equipped to fight these legal battles.”
When he addressed the court, Avenatti said if could change that past, “I would.”
“All I can do is try to move forward in a positive way, and that’s what I’ve attempted to do, and that’s what I’m going to continue to attempt to do,” he said.
After the hearing, Sagel told reporters that he believed Avenatti should have gotten more time, “but obviously getting the equivalent of 11 years on a fraud matter is a significant sentence.”
“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t see this as a victory, doing double digits in jail,” he said.
It’s unclear exactly when Avenatti will be released from prison.
After Selna handed down the sentence, Avenatti seemed to signal to someone in the crowd that another legal action was coming.
“We’ll be back,” he said.
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