Stormy Daniels on Michael Avenatti: 'I never liked him, and I never trusted him'

By Quentin Fottrell

The actress, director and author reflects on why she hired her former lawyer, who is now serving a 14-year prison sentence for wire and tax fraud

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Red flags? She's had a few.

The adult-film star, director and author of the 2018 memoir "Full Disclosure" held the New York premiere of her documentary "Stormy" at a small viewing room at the 3 Dollar Bill nightclub in Brooklyn on Monday. She talked about her life and answered questions about topics ranging from Donald Trump to her former lawyer Michael Avenatti, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence for fraud.

Daniels, 45, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, hired Avenatti despite telling me, "I never liked him, and I never trusted him." In fact, she said she made sure she was never alone in a room with him, and, in the documentary, for which she said she was not paid, there are moments where he flatters her, and yet you could cut the atmosphere between them with a knife.

Her life has been upended. She became a household name when the Wall Street Journal revealed in January 2018 that Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen had paid Daniels $130,000 one month before the U.S. presidential election, in an effort to silence her about her alleged affair with Trump.

Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count, 16-page indictment, charging him with 'falsifying business records' related to the $130,000 hush-money payment.

Daniels also owes Trump approximately $600,000 in legal fees after a failed defamation case.

Last year, Trump pleaded not guilty to a 34-count, 16-page indictment, charging him with "falsifying business records" related to the hush-money payment in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election. It has renewed interest in Daniels.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has, in public statements, appeared to make a point of referring to the case as centered on election interference and not the more benign-sounding hush money.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told MarketWatch that Daniels continues to "open herself up to tremendous legal liability."

In 2022, Avenatti was found guilty of cheating Daniels out of nearly $300,000 she was due from her literary agent. He subsequently pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud, and to one count of endeavoring to obstruct the administration of the Internal Revenue Code. He was ordered to pay $11 million in restitution.

Despite her misgivings about Avenatti, it's not uncommon for people to have difficulty retaining a lawyer due to a lack of funds, but there are options. Some cities and states offer legal aid to lower-income residents. Many law schools and paralegal programs also offer clinics. The nonprofit organizations Legal Services Corp. and LawHelp.org offer help finding free legal services.

Also see (February 2024): The checks that led to Trump's first criminal trial in the 'hush money' scandal

Avenatti took the case for $100

I asked why she had hired him. Daniels said a friend told her she was being "ungrateful" and no one else would take her case, or even believe her. She said one lawyer, who went on to become an attorney for Trump, wanted "tens of thousands of dollars" to represent her. So she hired Avenatti, despite her gut telling her otherwise. (Avenatti's lawyer did not immediately respond to request for comment.)

"Most attorneys would not take the case or, if they would, they wanted way more money than I could ever afford at the time," she said. "And Michael Avenatti did take the case, and he took it for $100, and he was charismatic and brilliant and charming, and he had so much potential it's unfortunate that he chose to use it for evil."

"For the record, I was never alone with Michael Avenatti, not even for 10 seconds," Daniels added.

She said Avenatti enjoyed the spotlight and building his own media profile, but she didn't mind, as long as he was doing his job. But she said he gave her bad vibes from Day 1. "I just really didn't have a choice, and he was really good at his job."

'Most attorneys would not take the case or, if they would, they wanted way more money than I could ever afford at the time.'Stormy Daniels on the hiring of lawyer Michael Avenatti

That is, until he decided to intercept funds from her literary agent.

According to a June 2022 statement released by the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, Avenatti stole two installments of Daniels's book advance, totaling $297,500, and sent Daniels's literary agent a fraudulent and unauthorized letter appearing to bear her signature.

The letter instructed her agent to send future payments to a bank account controlled by Avenatti. "In fact, Avenatti wrote the letter himself, never received authorization from Daniels, and caused Daniels' signature to be copied and pasted from another document onto the letter without her consent," the U.S. attorney's office said.

"For months after he had stolen this installment, Daniels repeatedly asked Avenatti about the missing payment and, after he again falsely claimed that the publisher had not made the payment, asked that Avenatti, as her lawyer, assist her in obtaining the book payment," it added. "Avenatti continued to lie and claim that he was fighting with the publisher on her behalf."

Death threats and a rubber bullet

The documentary, directed by Sarah Gibson and currently available to view on Comcast's (CMCSA) Peacock streaming service, reveals the excruciating details of her discovering that Avenatti had embezzled her money. It shows her telephone conversation with her literary agent, who believed Daniels had received her payments, and text messages back and forth between Daniels and Avenatti in which she asks repeatedly what happened to the money.

In addition to the legal issues related to the defamation case against Trump that Avenatti instigated on her behalf - Trump denies the alleged sexual encounter, but acknowledged that his then-lawyer paid Daniels $130,000 - Daniels has received death threats, and, in one incident shown in the documentary, a stranger shot her horse with a rubber bullet.

Daniels met Trump in 2006, at a golf tournament during the early, heady days of his success as a reality-TV personality on NBC's "The Apprentice." She was doing a paid appearance in the gift room of the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe, Calif. They ended up riding in the same golf cart, and, she said, Trump told her he wanted to meet with her later.

Daniels has received death threats, and, in one incident shown in the Peacock documentary, a stranger shot her horse with a rubber bullet.

That meeting, as recounted in her documentary, was all business - at first. She said Trump suggested he could get her a spot on "The Celebrity Apprentice," which did not come to fruition, and, as a girl brought up in Baton Rouge, La., she saw Trump, who was 60 at the time, as more of a father figure. She told In Touch magazine in 2018 that the meeting lasted for a couple of hours.

In one revealing scene in the documentary, from 2018, Avenatti is seen giving an impromptu press conference - and signing autographs - before a ceremony in which Daniels was due to receive a key to West Hollywood. She looks both amused and bemused. That day, Avenatti tweeted: "We should all thank Stormy for her courage and fortitude through this process! #Basta."

Like a 21st-century Mae West, Daniels has gained a reputation for quick retorts, on Twitter and elsewhere. During the 2022 trial, at which Avenatti defended himself for stealing $300,000 of her $800,000 book advance, he asked Daniels, who took the stand as a witness, if her book contract stated that he would be "entitled to a reasonable percentage" to be agreed upon between them.

Daniels replied, "You are very entitled."

-Quentin Fottrell

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03-23-24 2011ET

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