NEW YORK — Michael Avenatti, convicted of trying to shake down Nike and awaiting two more trials, was released from a lower Manhattan lockup Friday due to the coronavirus pandemic, his attorney confirmed.
The fallen attorney, who became famous by representing porn star Stormy Daniels, left the Metropolitan Correctional Center at 11 a.m., his attorney Dean Steward told the New York Daily News in an email. Avenatti completed a 14-day “total quarantine” in a cell once occupied by Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Steward said. The two weeks of isolation were necessary to ensure Avenatti had not caught COVID-19 before being released into 90 days of home confinement.
“It was an agonizing time for him, but he’s strong and weathered it,” Steward said.
CNN first reported Avenatti’s release.
Avenatti is awaiting sentencing for trying to extort $20 million from the shoe giant or he’d go public with damaging bribery allegations. He’s charged in Manhattan Federal Court with swindling Daniels out of nearly $300,000 for a book deal. He’s also accused in Los Angeles of cheating his clients, lying in bankruptcy proceedings, failure to pay taxes and other financial crimes.
Judge James Selna, who is presiding over the Los Angeles case, approved Avenatti’s release on bail after the disgraced bulldog attorney argued he was vulnerable to coronavirus due to a recent case of pneumonia.
MCC reported Thursday that five inmates and 33 staff members have tested positive for the virus, though those numbers likely understate the outbreak.
Avenatti, 49, will serve home confinement for 90 days at a childhood friend’s residence in Venice, Calif., on $1 million bond, court filings show. The attorney, who once relished fights on Twitter, is prohibited from accessing the internet.
Avenatti has pleaded not guilty to his pending charges and is seeking a new trial in the Nike case.
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