CBC News: Michael Avenatti sentenced to 4 years in prison for defrauding Trump accuser Stormy Daniels

Michael Avenatti, the brash California lawyer who once took on then-president Donald Trump, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for defrauding his best-known former client, the adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Avenatti, 51, in February of wire fraud and aggravated identity after a two-week trial, agreeing that he embezzled nearly $300,000 US in book proceeds intended for Daniels.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman imposed the sentence in federal court in Manhattan.

Avenatti, 51, had already been serving a two and a half year sentence stemming from his 2020 conviction for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc. …

Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty in August 2018 to violating campaign finance law by directing payments of $130,000 to Daniels and $150,000 to Playboy model Karen McDougal to avert a scandal shortly before the 2016 presidential election, won by Trump.

Cohen served a three-year prison term for that and other offences and has become a vociferous Trump critic.

Both women have said they had sexual encounters with Trump and the money was meant to buy their silence. Trump has denied the extramarital affairs but has never explained why the payments were therefore necessary.

Trump also initially denied knowledge of the payments, but documents released via court order in 2019 made clear he was aware of the frenetic efforts to keep both women silent in the days ahead of the election.

The National Enquirer — which revealed an extramarital affair of 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards — was aware of the Trump allegations but was convinced by the campaign to bury the story.

The publication last year was fined over $187,000 US by the Federal Election Commission for the so-called “catch and kill” move, which involved a hush-money payout to McDougal.

Trump, believed to be eyeing another run for the presidency, escaped any censure from the FEC.

“All the other actors have been held accountable, but still no accountability for former president Trump,” the government watchdog group Common Cause — which had filed a complaint against AMI, the publisher of the National Enquirer — said in a statement last year.