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.
