Stormy Daniels news – Michael Avenatti begins cross-examination of porn star in his own fraud trial

Watch live as Stormy Daniels arrives at Avenatti trial

Stormy Daniels testified today in a Manhattan court against her former lawyer Michael Avenatti, who is alleged to have swindled her out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr Avenatti has said he will question her for “six hours”, but the judge seemed unimpressed by the suggestion.

His cross-examination of Ms Daniels began just ten minutes before the end of Thursday’s proceedings. Mr Avenatti took over representation of himself from his legal team on Tuesday, saying it is “the best chance at winning” the case.

The California lawyer is accused of stealing $300,000 of the money Ms Daniels was owed for her autobiography. He is charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Mr Avenatti became well known nationally in 2018 as he represented Ms Daniels in lawsuits against Donald Trump. He was briefly something of a hero for many anti-Trumpers, but come 2020 he began a spectacular fall from grace that saw him sentenced to jail for trying to extort Nike out of millions of dollars.

Key points

• Avenatti files motion to examine Luke Janklow and Stormy Daniels
• Witness says Avenatti ‘wanted to go big’ on Daniels’ encounter with Trump
• Sean Macias said Avenatti wanted to represent porn star for a dollar

[27 January 2022 07:16 · Shweta Sharma]

Good morning, and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the Michael Avenatti trial in Manhattan for Thursday, 27 January.

[27 January 2022 07:42 · Shweta Sharma]

Witness says Avenatti ‘wanted to go big’ on Daniels’ encounter with Trump

Giving a colourful testimony on Wednesday, Sean Ernesto Macias said Avenatti “wanted to go big” with an appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes” over Daniels’ wish to go public about her sexual tryst with Donald Trump.

“He told her: ‘I’ll charge you a dollar,’” Macias recalled.

He referred to Avenatti as “handsome fellow with the shaved head”, but at one point said he “feels bad for him in a weird way”.

He said Avenatti gave him a Cartier watch in 2018 when prosecutor, Mathew Podolsky, asked Macias if Avenatti thanked him for introducing him to Daniels.

[27 January 2022 08:29 · Shweta Sharma]

Stormy Daniels' testimony was postposed to stop 'irrelevant' evidence

Stormy Daniels was due to take the stand on Wednesday and the former lawyer Michael Avenatti was to cross-examine her himself.

But Daniels’ testimony was postponed due to “irrelevant” evidence after prosecution presented a motion to deny certain evidence from Avenatti’s questioning.

“The Government respectfully submits this letter to request that the Court preclude certain Defense Exhibits and cross-examination of Stephanie Clifford, a/k/a ‘Stormy Daniels,’ on particular topics because they are irrelevant and their probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of unfair prejudice,” the prosecution wrote in a letter to the judge.

The evidence would include the porn star’s financial statements, checks and payment of back taxes.

[27 January 2022 08:51 · Shweta Sharma]

Avenatti files motion to examine Luke Janklow and Stormy Daniels

Michael Avenatti filed a quantum meruit argument on Thursday night against his limits on examining Daniels and agent Luke Janklow, the president and managing director at Janklow & Nesbit Associates, a literary agency that represented Daniels.

The letter cites case law, saying its purpose is “the law’s disgust for unjust enrichment” and says it supports his argument.

[27 January 2022 09:02 · Shweta Sharma]

Sean Macias said Avenatti wanted to represent porn star for a dollar

Michael Avenatti jumped at the chance to represent porn star Stormy Daniels in 2018, saying he’d do it for a dollar, another California attorney testified Wednesday at Avenatti’s criminal trial.

The testimony by the lawyer, Sean Ernesto Macias, was expected to set the stage for Daniels to take the witness stand on Thursday at Avenatti’s criminal trial.

Read full report below:

[27 January 2022 09:30 · Shweta Sharma]

What is Avenatti’s $94m case against the US

Along with the trial now underway in New York, Michael Avenatti is fighting a very different legal battle: a lawsuit he’s brought against the US government over his treatement in jail.

Mr Avenatti is suing the government for $94m, claiming $1m in compensation for each day he says he was held in 24-hour solitary confinement or lockdown. According to his lawyers, he was treated very differently from other prisoners and was only allowed one book to read: Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal.

Jade Bremner has the story:

[27 January 2022 10:00 · Shweta Sharma]

Anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti’s feud with Stormy Daniels goes to trial: What happened?

The relationship between Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti seemed to be solid in the spring of 2018 when they appeared outside a Manhattan court hearing concerning raids at the home and office of Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer.

Mr Avenatti started considering running for president after becoming popular as an outspoken critic of Mr Trump on cable news.

Read the full report here:

[27 January 2022 10:40 · Andrew Naughtie]

Why is Avenatti representing himself?

While he is a lawyer, Avenatti’s decision to fire his own defence team is both unusual and risky. He initially asked to defend himself during a court session on Tuesday, but was told to sit down, the judge saying “I’m not going to waste the jury’s time.”

He advised the disbarred Avenatti to stick with his “exceptionally good lawyers”, but the defendant stuck to his guns.

[27 January 2022 11:19 · Andrew Naughtie]

Catch up: How Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti fell out

Ms Daniels’s relationship with her sometime lawyer seemed as strong as anything in the heady days of 2018, when they arrived at a Manhattan court hearing about raids on the home of ex-Trump laywer Michael Cohen. But since then, things have deteriorated to an incredible low – and not just because of Avenatti’s various legal catastrophes.

Read up on the saga here:

[27 January 2022 12:00 · Andrew Naughtie]

Michael Cohen shares podcast interview with Stormy Daniels

Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney who facilitated the payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels after her affair with Donald Trump, has previously interviewed Ms Daniels on his podcast, Mea Culpa. He and Avenatti share a bitter personal enmity, and he later made peace with Ms Daniels as she pursued justice against the former president and her own former lawyer.

As Ms Daniels prepares to testify in the Avenatti trial, Mr Cohen has shared a new conversation with her in which they discuss the accusations against Avenatti, the country’s “post-traumatic Trump disorder”, and Ms Daniels’s diagnosis of the state of politics today.

Listen below...