NEW YORK — Michael Avenatti threw the kitchen sink at his former client Stormy Daniels on Friday, questioning her about poltergeists, prison rape, “Game of Thrones” and Michael Cohen’s podcast as the disgraced lawyer’s fraud trial took a bizarre turn.
Avenatti is accused of stealing $300,000 of book advance payments from Daniels, his former client. Avenatti, acting as his own lawyer, sought to portray Daniels as unstable and holding a grudge against him.
“You stated that I was ‘f——g myself nice and hard,’ and that when I go to prison, there will be a long line of people to a– rape me,” Avenatti said to Daniels in Manhattan Federal Court.
“I don’t deny it,” replied Daniels, 42, adding that she didn’t remember making the statement.
Avenatti, 50, asked his former star client about another comment she made that her eponymous line of lube, “Tempest by Stormy,” might come in “handy” while he awaited trial behind bars.
“Because you can just bring me a gift basket in prison?” asked Avenatti.
Daniels confirmed that she had mocked Avenatti on Twitter as he stewed behind bars.
Inquiring about the online show “Spooky Babes,” which showcases Daniels’ work as a paranormal investigator, Avenatti asked the porn star how she communicated with the dead.
“It just happens sometimes,” said Daniels. “The nonliving.”
Avenatti also asked Daniels about her discussions about the case on Cohen’s podcast, “Mea Culpa.”
Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, notoriously arranged the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election. The payout bought Daniels’ silence about her alleged affair with Trump during the height of the presidential campaign.
Avenatti rose to prominence in 2018 while representing Daniels in her legal effort to void the nondisclosure agreement tied to the payment.
Judge Jesse Furman did not allow Avenatti to probe Daniels’ unlikely friendship with Cohen.
Cohen, who betrayed Trump, served three years in prison and has apologized to Daniels, sat in the courtroom’s back row, chuckling.
During another bizarre back and forth, Daniels told the court she referred to her security guards as her “dragons” in a nod to Queen Daenerys Targaryen’s character in the HBO show “Game of Thrones.”
The porn star previously said she made scathing jibes about Avenatti after learning that he had stolen her money and lied about it for months.
“Very, very angry, shocked, disbelief, hurt, and I felt very betrayed and stupid,” she testified. “I don’t know if there is a word stronger than furious, but that would be it. And shock.”
Prosecutors say Avenatti forged Daniels’ signature and directed advance payments for her book, “Full Disclosure,” to accounts he controlled.
Scores of texts entered in evidence show Avenatti warning Daniels’ literary agent never to contact her directly because she was an “insane” porn actress who “doesn’t understand the real world.”
At the same time, Avenatti was texting Daniels about the publisher being “difficult” and claiming it was withholding payments because her book had not sold well. Bank records show the publisher wired the advance payments on time to a trust account at Avenatti’s firm.
If convicted, Avenatti faces up to 22 years in prison. He is yet to begin a 2 1/2-year sentence for trying to extort Nike of $25 million.
———
