Appeals court orders new sentence for disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti over stealing from clients

A federal appeals court on Wednesday vacated the 14-year sentence of disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti, who was convicted of swindling his clients, and ordered he be resentenced.

Avenatti, who rose to fame for representing porn actor Stormy Daniels in her case against former President Trump, pleaded guilty in 2022 to four counts of wire fraud and a tax charge without reaching a deal with federal prosecutors.

A three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court that issued the 168-month sentence improperly calculated Avenatti’s sentence. The panel contended that the trial judge weighed a perjury enhancement too heavily, and too lightly weighed the value of Avenatti’s legal services and payments he made to victims.

“I am thankful that a UNANIMOUS three judge panel of the 9th Circuit threw out my draconian prison sentence today,” Avenatti wrote on the social platform X. “The sentence was always grossly unjust and violative of my most basic constitutional rights, but the government sought it anyway solely because of who I am. We ALL deserve due process.”

The panel also considered whether Avenatti’s sentence should run concurrently with two other sentences handed down following other high-profile convictions: one for aggravated identity theft after stealing Daniels’s book proceeds, and the other for plotting to extort Nike.

He was sentenced to four years in prison in the Daniels case and 2 1/2 years in the Nike case. The decision over whether to merge those sentences with his new sentence for stealing from other clients ultimately lies with the trial court.

Avenatti’s appeals in both the Daniels case and Nike case reached the Supreme Court this year, but the justices declined to hear either one. He has been suspended from practicing law in California since 2020.