Michael Avenatti has been granted permission to represent himself at his own trial in Manhattan, setting the stage for him to directly confront his former client Stormy Daniels if and when she takes the stand.
As he left the courthouse on Tuesday, Avenatti said he felt comfortable representing himself. “I’m a trial lawyer. It’s what I’ve done for two decades. It’s my arena,” he said.
Avenatti, a California lawyer, is accused of stealing $300,000 of the money Daniels was owed for her autobiography. He is also charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Avenatti became well known nationally in 2018 as he represented 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.
