Skip to main content

Crime

After guilty plea, U.S. drops 31 charges against anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti

The former lawyer for pornographic actress Stormy Daniels already faces 83 additional years in prison for fraud-related counts

June 21, 2022 3:55pm

Updated: June 22, 2022 11:23am

The Department of Justice will not charge Michael Avenatti, former lawyer for pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, with 31 additional fraud counts after he pleaded guilty last week to five fraud-related charges.

Federal prosecutors for the Central District of California said Tuesday in a filing obtained by CNN they will not pursue the remaining 31 charges of bank fraud, wire fraud, and tax-related crimes.

The disgraced anti-Trump attorney was sentenced in June to four years in prison for defrauding Daniels.

Avenatti was already serving two and a half years in prison for extorting Nike. 

He faces an additional 83 years behind bars for the fraud charges to which he pleaded guilty on Thursday. He will be sentenced in mid-September.

"Such a sentence would obviate the need for a trial on the remaining counts. Accordingly, the government expects to move to dismiss the remaining counts of the Indictment after sentence is imposed," the prosecutors wrote in Tuesday's filing dismissing the additional charges.