Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti.Photo:Peacock
Peacock
A newStormy Danielsdocumentary on Peacock reveals a snapshot of her early partnership with lawyerMichael Avenatti, who guided her through her legal battles withDonald Trumpbefore turning around and burning her.
Stormyfollows former adult film star Daniels after she wasthrust into the spotlight in 2018, whenTheWall Street Journalreported that Trump hadarranged a $130,000 hush money paymentto her one month before the 2016 presidential election in order to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter they’d had years earlier.
The new documentary offers a peek behind the curtain as Daniels navigated the legal firestorm and tried to reinvent herself as her public profile grew — and in the process, viewers get a glimpse at her quick rapport with Avenatti, who would go on to beconvicted of fraudafter he stole around $300,000 of the $800,000 advance for Daniels' October 2018 book,Full Disclosure.
A clip fromStormyshared exclusively with PEOPLE shows Daniels — whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford — talking with Avenatti moments after publicly detailing her experience with Trump.
“Did you like my speech?” Daniels asks Avenatti in the clip.
“I thought it was f—ing amazing, every time you stepped up to the mic,” he responds. “Every time I go out and I talk about you as a person and what you’re all about — I don’t have to lie, I just tell it exactly how I see it. I’m serious.”
“Thank you,” Daniels says, adding with a laugh, “Keep saying nice things to me, I’m gonna take my clothes off, ‘cause that’s my go-to defense mechanism.”
The clip continues with voiceover from Daniels, who says that prior to meeting Avenatti, she brought her case to other attorneys — but none wanted to go near it.
“Some were just immediately, like, ‘I’m sorry — too hot for us,’ or, ‘We need a minimum $100,000 retainer,'” she explains in the film.
Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, and her then-lawyer Michael Avenatti.Heidi Gutman/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Of course, the clip carries a sinister undertone, as viewers know that the lawyer-client relationship she once seemed fond of ultimately fell apart, when Daniels discovered that Avenatti had kept some of the money from her book deal for himself — and forged her signature to do so.
“It’s never okay to steal money from a client and he forged my signature,” she told NBC News at the time.
According to the Department of Justice, Avenatti stole two installments of Daniels’ book advance, totaling $297,500, and then sent to her literary agent “a fraudulent and unauthorized letter purporting to be from Daniels and appearing to bear her signature, which directed that future payments be sent to a bank account that he controlled.”
The DOJ said that, once he received $148,750 worth of the advance, Avenatti “promptly spent the money to satisfy his own personal and business expenses,” later obtaining a personal loan to pay Daniels back.
Avenatti served as his own counsel in his trial and grilled Daniels for hours when she was on the stand, perThe New York Times. He wassentenced to four years in prisonfor identity theft and wire fraud in 2022, and later received anadditional 14-year sentencefor stealing millions from other clients.
Donald Trump is arraigned on 34 felony counts related to alleged hush money payments involving Stormy Daniels.Andrew Kelly-Pool/Getty
Andrew Kelly-Pool/Getty
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Trump’s hush money trial is set to begin this spring.
source: people.com
