Stormy Daniels has taken the stand to testify against her former lawyer Michael Avenatti at his criminal trial over accusations that he defrauded her.
Daniels walked into court wearing black heels, a black dress with a slit down her right shoulder and a flowing dark red cardigan.
She sat in the witness box – a plastic box with a filter inside it due to Covid protocols – and took off her mask before brushing back her blonde hair.
Asked by the prosecutor why Avenatti stopped being her lawyer in February 2019, Daniels said Thursday: ‘He stole from me and lied to me’.
Asked what in particular, she replied: ‘Payments from my publisher about my book’
Her testimony for the prosecution sets up a possible spectacle where Avenatti, a brash lawyer who is representing himself in the case, will cross-examine his former client. Avenatti represented Daniels in cases she brought against former president Donald Trump.
Her testimony could stretch into Friday.
Stormy Daniels took the stand Thursday to testify against her former lawyer Michael Avenatti at his criminal trial over accusations that he defrauded her. Daniels walked into court wearing black heels, a black dress with a slit down her right shoulder and a flowing dark red cardigan
Avenatti said he plans to cross-examine Daniels for six hours. He has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 22 years in prison if convicted. Avenatti is seen arriving to court on Thursday
Daniels gave her name as Stephanie Clifford, her legal name and she appeared nervous, speaking so quickly that the judge had to ask her to slow down.
Prosecutor Robert Sobelman asked her if she was known by any other names and she said ‘Stormy Daniels’, which she said she preferred to be referred to as.
Daniels identified Avenatti as the defendant – he stood up in court as she was asked to do so.
Asked by the prosecutor why Avenatti stopped being her lawyer in February 2019, Daniels spoke in a clear voice and said: ‘He stole from me and lied to me’.
Avenatti is pictured left with Stormy Daniels in May 2018, before their professional relationship collapsed after she accused him of embezzling money she made of her 2018 memoir Full Disclosure (right)
Asked what in particular, she replied: ‘Payments from my publisher about my book’
Daniels described herself as a ‘writer, director, actress’ who was currently working on a TV series about the paranormal.
In February 2018 when she first met Avenatti she said she was an ‘actress, model, dancer and working in adult films’.
They met at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills to discuss how Avenatti could help her get out of agreements she signed with Donald Trump not to talk about their sexual relations.
Daniels said that she next saw Avenatti 24 hours later over lunch and that he offered to represent her for $100 up front.
She signed a contract with him which said he was entitled to a ‘standard hourly fee’ if a legal defense fund was set up.
Daniels said that such a fund was set up and that it made around $650,000.
The contract said that if Avenatti helped Daniels with a book or media deal he would be paid a ‘reasonable percentage to be agreed upon’ by both of them.
Sobelman asked if they ever agreed how much Avenatti’s fee would be if she got a book deal.
Daniels said no.
She also confirmed that she did not sign any other contracts with Avenatti.
At the start of the day Avenatti told the court that he intended to cross examine Daniels for six hours – twice the prosecution’s three hours.
Judge Jesse Furman said: ‘We’ll see about that six hours’.
Before Daniels gave evidence the court was shown WhatsApp messages between her and Avenatti as their relationship fell apart.
On February 15, 2019 when Daniels discovered that Avenatti had asked her publisher to pay him her book money, she confronted him.
She messaged him the contract with her publisher and details of how they had sent him the $148,750 payment, the third out of four instalments of a total of $800,000.
Daniels said: ‘I didn’t even know you had a trust account with my name on it’.
In another message she said that Avenatti ‘waited 30 days’ to send her the second payment.
She said that he had ‘had payment three for over five months’.
Daniels then informed Avenatti that she had hired another lawyer to represent her and told him to contact the new attorney.
Before Daniels realized that was going on she wrongly thought that her literary agent was withholding money from her.
In a message to Avenatti she said she hoped Luke Janklow ‘choked on the money he was making from me’.
Daniels asked Avenatti in December 2018 when her publisher was going to ‘cough up my money’.
She said: ‘How can they think for a moment they can get away with not paying me?’
Avenatti said: ‘They will have to pay you, Stormy’.
In another message in September 2018 to Avenatti she said that ‘I don’t give a s***’ any more’ about an appearance on TV, which appeared to be referring to the Jimmy Kimmel show.
Daniels expressed frustration at the idea of Avenatti coming on the show with her and said that he ‘talked mad s***’ about Kimmel with her and then found out that Avenatti and Kimmel were seen together.
Daniels complained about ‘conversations going on behind my back’ to which Avenatti replied that she should ‘stop lashing out’ at him.
Asked by the prosecutor why Avenatti stopped being her lawyer in February 2019, Daniels said Thursday: ‘He stole from me and lied to me’
Daniels claims she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006 – on the night this photo was taken – a year after he married third wife Melania. Trump denies the claim
The defense alleged Avenatti (pictured in a Monday courtroom sketch) had given Daniels hundreds of thousands of dollars only to be faced with false accusations from her, adding that behavior was not uncommon for Daniels, who when she didn’t ‘get her way, she turned on the people closest to her’
The disgraced attorney’s trial heard Wednesday that Avenatti was so broke at the time he couldn’t make rent payments on his office and ‘teared up and cried’ when somebody else turned him down for a loan.
He was eventually bailed out in September 2018 by celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, whose clients have included Michael Jackson, Chris Brown and Winona Ryder.
Geragos agreed to the loan to help out ‘El Presidente’, a joke referring to Avenatti’s mooted run for the presidency at the time, the trial heard.
Avenatti then used the funds to pay Daniels $148,000 that he owed her for a payment for her 2018 memoir, Full Disclosure.
Avenatti, who represented Daniels in her lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, is accused of illegally syphoning off $300,000 of an $800,000 payment for her memoir to himself.
He allegedly forged her signature to persuade her agent to pay the money to him rather than to her as he had previously done.
Avenatti denies wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and is facing up to 22 years in prison if found guilty.
He was sentenced to 30 months in prison last year after being convicted of trying to extort up to $25million from sportswear giant Nike. He has not yet begun serving the sentence.
The once high-powered attorney is also awaiting retrial in a California case – on charges that he cheated clients of millions of dollars – after a mistrial last year.
Court documents filed in the Nike case showed that Geragos, who was involved in negotiations with Avenatti and the sportswear company, tried to warn Avenatti that he ‘crossed a line’.
Geragos ‘was concerned about and uncomfortable with the situation…which Geragos believed may have become extortionate’, a prosecution filing stated.
Avenatti’s trial heard Wednesday that he was ultimately bailed out in September 2018 by celebrity attorney Mark Geragos (pictured) whose clients have included Michael Jackson, Chris Brown (right) and Winona Ryder
Sean Macias, a California lawyer and former friend of Avenatti, gave evidence on the third day of the trial Wednesday, claiming Avenatti asked to borrow $250,000 but he refused
A text message presented as evidence in court showed Macias had thanked Geragos ‘for sorting out Avanatti’ on September 5, 2018
Sean Macias, a California lawyer and former friend of Avenatti, gave evidence on the third day of the trial at the federal court in New York.
In early 2018 he introduced Avenatti to Daniels, a porn actress who became shot to infamy after claiming she had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump who allegedly paid her to stay quiet.
Macias said that over the Labor Day weekend in 2018 he and Avenatti were in Las Vegas at a boozy ‘blow out party’ following a legal conference when his friend seemed ‘agitated’ and ‘a little bit needy’.
As Macias, a colorful, barrel-chested figure, told the court, Avenatti came over and ‘slumped’ in his chair and said that Daniels was going ‘crazy’.
Macias said Avenatti told him she was going to ‘blow up’ the deal with the publishers and go to the press because she wasn’t getting paid the second installment for her book deal.
Prosecutors claim that Daniels had in fact been paid, only Avenatti forged her signature to get her agent to give him the money instead of her.
Macias told the jury that the following Tuesday he was ‘shocked’ to find Avenatti turn up in the conference room of his law firm unannounced while he was out to lunch.
Evidence presented in court showed Macias reluctantly reached out to a wealthy tech friend to help Avenatti but the man later emailed to say that the ‘transaction cannot happen on such a short time frame’
Avenatti claimed he was ‘jammed’ for money and that he was going to be evicted from his office in Los Angeles and couldn’t make his payroll.
Macias said that he was stunned because Avenatti was the ‘top lawyer’ in the state at the time given how he and Daniels were taking legal action against Trump.
Macias claimed that Avenatti asked him for a loan of $250,000 but he said no, remarking that he ‘used the F word with a no at the end’.
Avenatti begged Macias: ‘You’ve gotta help me out, you’ve gotta help me out’, the court heard.
Macias reluctantly called a wealthy tech friend of his and they set up a meeting that evening where Avenatti talked about how he was ‘fighting the good fight’ and taking on Trump.
Avenatti upped his request to $300,000 and the man seemed to be keen to help.
But the next day the friend emailed Macias to say that ‘this transaction cannot happen on such a short time frame’.
According to Macias, Avenatti was ‘really upset’. He said: ‘He teared up crying’.
Avenatti begged Macias to call Geragos, which he reluctantly did and was met with a surprisingly warm reception.
Geragos ‘kind of laughed’ as Macias explained that Avenatti was ‘jammed’ and ‘being squeezed’ by the landlord of his office.
According to Macias, Geragos referred to Avenatti as ‘El Presidente’ and said: ‘Why not?’
Avenatti is accused of misappropriating funds intended for Daniels in part by forging her signature in a letter to an agent. He is pictured with Daniels in 2018 outside federal court in New York
The money appears to have arrived in Avenatti’s account that day, September 5, 2018.
According to the indictment, that day Avenatti paid Daniels the $148,750 he got from her literary agent a month prior that she should have already had received.
Prosecutors claim that Avenatti failed to pay her the third payment for an identical sum which was sent weeks later after he requested that it be hurried up.
During cross examination Avenatti, who is representing himself, asked Macias if the money he was trying to arrange for him was actually for his Presidential campaign.
Macias said: ‘Absolutely not’.
Avenatti claimed that Macias was ‘enthusiastic’ about the prospect of him running for the White House.
Macias didn’t deny it and said that while Avenatti wanted him to be his chief of staff he wanted him to ‘make me ambassador of France, that would be awesome’.
Daniels, whose real name is Stephane Cliffod, is expected to testify on Thursday and Judge Jesse Furman denied Avenatti’s request to be able to question her about back payment of taxes and child support payments to her former spouse.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Geragos for comment.