(NEW YORK) — Former National Rifle Association operations director Joshua Powell has settled civil claims of fraud and abuse brought by the New York Attorney General’s office.
The admission comes hours after Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the NRA, announced his resignation ahead of a trial scheduled to begin Monday. LaPierre cited health reasons, according to the NRA. The resignation will be effective Jan. 31.
Powell was employed by the NRA from 2016 through January 2020 and in that time “Powell breached his fiduciary duties and failed to administer the charitable assets entrusted to his care by using his powers as an officer and senior executive of the NRA to convert charitable assets for his own benefit and for the benefit of his family members,” the settlement agreement said.
“Joshua Powell’s admission of wrongdoing and Wayne LaPierre’s resignation confirm what we have alleged for years: the NRA and its senior leaders are financially corrupt,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Saturday.
The attorney general is suing the NRA, which is registered in New York as a non-profit charitable corporation, and its senior management for misappropriating millions of dollars to fund personal benefits, including private jets, family vacations and luxury goods.
The NRA tried to file bankruptcy in 2021 but a federal judge rejected its petition, saying “the NRA did not file the bankruptcy petition in good faith.”
James’ lawsuit seeks an independent monitor to oversee the NRA’s finances.
As part of his settlement, Powell admitted he breached his fiduciary duties of care, loyalty and obedience by using the NRA’s charitable assets for his own benefit and the benefit of his family. He also admitted he failed to administer the charitable assets entrusted to his care properly.
He agreed to pay $100,000 in restitution and accept a permanent bar from serving as an officer in a nonprofit. He also agreed to testify against LaPierre and others at trial.
LaPierre previously said the New York AG’s lawsuit was an “unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA — the fiercest defender of America’s freedom at the ballot box for decades.”
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — An Alaska Airlines flight returned to Portland, Oregon, soon after takeoff after it “experienced an incident,” prompting the airline to temporarily ground its Boeing 737-9 fleet, the airline said Friday.
Six crew members and 171 passengers were on board Flight 1282 bound for Ontario, California, the airline said.
The cabin became depressurized shortly after takeoff and the pilots asked for an emergency landing, according to the transcript of an air traffic control call from LiveATC.net. A photo posted on social media appeared to show a hole in the fuselage next to a passenger seat.
“The safety of our guests and employees is always our primary priority,” Alaska said in a statement, “so while this type of occurrence is rare, our flight crew was trained and prepared to safely manage the situation.”
CEO Ben Minicucci called the grounding “precautionary,” saying in a statement the 65 planes will return to service “only after completion of full maintenance and safety inspections.”
“We are working with Boeing and regulators to understand what occurred tonight, and will share updates as more information is available,” Minicucci said.
As of Saturday morning, more than a quarter of inspections on the Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 MAX 9 fleet are complete with “no concerning findings,” the carrier said.
Alaska said planes will continue to return to service as inspections are completed.
“We deeply apologize to our guests whose flights have been impacted,” the airline said in a statement. “Guests whose travel has been impacted can go online to view flight options and rebook travel, place the value of their ticket in their Mileage Plan Wallet for future use, or request a refund.”
The damage that led to the emergency landing appeared to be in the location of a “plug,” said John J. Nance, an ABC News aviation analyst. Those are spots in the fuselage shaped similar to a door that aren’t designed to open, even when the aircraft is on the ground. They could be converted to doors if the airline needs an extra boarding door.
The Boeing 737 MAX 9 has been in service since October 2023, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
The aircraft maker said it had a technical team standing ready to help with the investigation.
“We are aware of the incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282,” Boeing officials said in a statement. “We are working to gather more information and are in contact with our airline customer.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said on Saturday they were sending a “go team” to Portland to investigate the incident.
The team will arrive on scene later Saturday and consists of experts in structures, operations and systems, the NTSB said.
(NEW YORK) — The year’s first significant winter storm in the eastern U.S. is expected to bring heavy snow to more than a dozen states this weekend.
Winter storm warnings are in effect for 13 states, from North Carolina to Maine.
Overall, there is a wide swath of projected 6-12 inches across many interior portions of the Northeast. Some of the highest snow totals will be found in the higher elevations of New England, where more than a foot is likely.
There remains uncertainty in snowfall for some regions. In Connecticut, for example, snow totals will likely rise the farther north you go from I-95. Eastern Massachusetts is another area that may have a sharp gradient of snow totals, with some getting a lot and some getting barely anything.
“The combination of heavy, wet snow and gusty winds from northeast Pennsylvania through much of southern and central New England will result in difficult travel with some power outages and tree damage,” the National Weather Service warned. “Gusty onshore winds may lead to minor flooding along the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England coasts during the Sunday morning high tide cycle.”
Timing the storm
The storm has been making its journey across the country during the last few days, drenching the south Friday while dropping several inches of snow in states including Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois.
By early Saturday afternoon, the storm is forecast to slice through the Mid-Atlantic, possibly bringing a brief wintry mix before switching to rain in cities including Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.
Around 5 p.m. ET, snow is expected to begin to move into the New York City area. There may be an initial “thump” of moderate to heavy snow before the inevitable change to a wintry mix of snow and rain.
By 8 p.m. ET, conditions are likely to begin deteriorating across parts of New England as the snow moves in. While this storm is not a blizzard, low visibility can be problematic in any snowstorm, so drivers are urged to use caution.
Snow is expected to continue across much of the Northeast into the overnight hours. Along coastal areas, any snow on the ground may become slushy as a change to rain occurs. The heaviest snow is forecast to fall overnight.
By Sunday morning, there will likely be lingering areas of snow in much of the Northeast, while the daytime will bring a few spotty snow showers that gradually taper off.
The storm is expected to move out of the Northeast by Sunday evening.
(CLEVELAND) — Throughout many American cities, the death of local news organizations has led to the public losing access to much-needed information from their local government, such as city council hearings, according to experts.
A study by the Clinton Foundation and the Knight Foundation found that only 11% of the news produced in Cleveland served “a critical information need,” according to Lawrence Caswell, the managing editor of community for the nonprofit news organization, Signal Cleveland.
“Even though these meetings are open to the public, very little of the information from these meetings gets out to residents,” he told ABC News Live. “Even though the whole reason [of] why they are open to the public is to make sure that the residents can get the information from these meetings.”
But for the last three years, Carswell’s news organization takes part in a national program that worked to fill that void by turning to civic-minded residents and training them to help document the public meetings.
There have been more than 400 people who have participated in the Documenters program for Signal Cleveland, according to Caswell. Interested residents sign up, get specialized training from him and his journalists and are free to go to any public meeting and start taking notes.
The notes written by the Documenters, who are paid, are then posted online in weekly briefs for the public.
City Bureau, an Chicago based non-profit organization, started the Documenters program, and has several chapters based around the country.
Kellie Morris, a Documenter, told ABC News Live that being part of the team is straightforward as she didn’t need any special level of education or background to record all of the details of meetings.
“I’m just writing from a layperson’s position as I see it and what I see as important. And that’s the whole point — that anyone can be a documenter,” she said.
In addition to the weekly briefs, the Documenters meet monthly with Signal Cleveland’s staff to discuss the events they covered.
Mark Naymik, the managing editor for Signal Cleveland, told ABC News Live that the details and information provided by the Documenters have greatly helped the news organization’s coverage of the city.
“To look for news that I can then draw out as a story or assign to someone or use it in a newsletter, it’s become invaluable,” he said.
Caswell said the monthly meetings not only help the Documenters and journalists explore news topics to cover, but they also encourage dialogue about civics among residents.
“The benefit of this space is that you have all of this diverse group of folks who are connected by their interest in sort of participating civically,” he said.
Caswell added that the program is still growing and he hoped that it can continue to fill the void left by the loss of the local press.
“We really feel like that’s the basis for sort of building capacity for self-directed problem solving and I think, fundamentally, a stronger local democracy,” he said
(NEW YORK) — At least one person is dead and nearly two dozen others injured after a tour bus traveling from Canada to New York City rolled over on a highway, officials said.
The incident occurred shortly before 1 p.m. Friday on Interstate 87 between Lake George and Warrensburg in upstate New York, officials said.
One person was killed in the crash, a state official confirmed to ABC New York station WABC.
Approximately 22 people with various injuries were treated by emergency responders, including air medical services, according to Lake George EMS.
FlixBus, the bus operator, said one passenger had serious injuries and 10 other passengers and the driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
There were 23 people on board the bus, including the driver, FlixBus said.
The tour bus originated in Montreal and most of the passengers were Canadian, according to Warren County Administrator John Taflan. Most passengers are believed to be adults, he said.
FlixBus said the long-distance bus was traveling on its scheduled route from Montreal to midtown Manhattan when the crash occurred.
New York State Police are investigating the cause of the rollover, Taflan said.
FlixBus said it is working closely with authorities and its transport partner to “determine the exact circumstances of this accident.”
“At all times, the safety of passengers and drivers is of the highest importance to FlixBus,” the company said in a statement. “FlixBus is deeply shocked about what happened and sends its deepest condolences to the victim’s relatives and friends and express its full support to the passengers and drivers affected by this accident.”
I-87 southbound is closed between exits 23 and 22 due to the “serious crash,” state police said.
“I join New Yorkers in praying for all involved in this horrific incident & am grateful for the heroic efforts of our first responders,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement on social media.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
(PERRY, Iowa) — The sixth grade student killed in a mass shooting at an Iowa high school on Thursday has been identified, as authorities increased the number of victims reported in the “horrific” incident.
Ahmir Jolliff, 11, was shot three times in the shooting at Perry High School, the Iowa Department of Public Safety said in a release on Friday.
The Perry Middle School student was one of eight victims in the shooting, the Iowa Department of Public Safety said Friday, increasing the previously reported number of victims by two.
Seven people — three staff members and four students — “received wounds or injuries of varying degree,” the agency said.
Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger, one of the staff members injured in the shooting, remains in critical condition, according to the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
The principal has been hailed as a hero.
“The investigation thus far confirms Principal Marburger acted selflessly and placed himself in harm’s way in an apparent effort to protect his students,” the Iowa Department of Public Safety said.
Two other students remain hospitalized while the other victims have since been treated and released, the agency said.
The suspected shooter –17-year-old Dylan Butler, a student at the high school — died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
He was found dead by responding officers with a pump-action shotgun and a small-caliber handgun, according to Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation.
A “rudimentary” explosive device was also located in the school and rendered safe, Mortvedt said.
Authorities have not commented on a possible motive.
The investigation remains ongoing.
“Investigators have seized large volumes of digital and social media evidence that will take time to review,” the Iowa Department of Public Safety said. “Background investigations, as well as eyewitness accounts and victim interviews, are continuing.”
The agency said the Division of Criminal Investigation’s report will be submitted to the Dallas County Attorney’s Office “to determine what additional course of action, if any, should be undertaken.”
During a press briefing on Friday, Perry Community School District Superintendent Clark Wicks would not comment on the suspect’s disciplinary record or reports that he was bullied.
“We care about every kid. We take every bullying situation seriously. And our goal is to always have that safe and inviting atmosphere,” he said. “But I’m not going to comment on this individual case.”
The school district remains closed in the wake of what Wicks called the “horrific incident.”
Wicks said the elementary and middle schools will reopen as early as Jan. 12. High school students will not return until after next week.
“There is some damage to the high school and that’s going to take some time to clean and repair,” he said. “We want the students to be able to come in here and see that it looks like Perry High School.”
Perry is located in the suburbs northwest of Des Moines.
The shooting occurred before the school day had started, and there were very few students and faculty in the building
Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, has announced he is resigning from the organization days before the start of a civil corruption trial.
LaPierre, 74, cited health reasons, according to the NRA. The resignation will be effective Jan. 31.
“With pride in all that we have accomplished, I am announcing my resignation from the NRA,” LaPierre said in a statement. “I’ve been a card-carrying member of this organization for most of my adult life, and I will never stop supporting the NRA and its fight to defend Second Amendment freedom. My passion for our cause burns as deeply as ever.”
NRA President Charles Cotton said he had accepted LaPierre’s resignation during a board meeting on Friday.
Andrew Arulanandam, head of operations for the NRA, will become interim executive vice president.
New York Attorney General Letitia James accused LaPierre of gross negligence for allegedly diverting millions from the NRA for personal use, including for designer clothes, private planes and luxury goods. The accusations came at the end of three-year investigation into the NRA in August 2020.
“While the end of the Wayne LaPierre era is an important victory in our case, our push for accountability continues,” James said in a statement Friday. “LaPierre’s resignation validates our claims against him, but it will not insulate him or the NRA from accountability. All charities in New York state must adhere to the rule of law, and my office will not tolerate gross mismanagement or top executives funneling millions into their own pockets.”
The civil trial, slated to start Monday, will still go forward.
“The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said at the time. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.”
LaPierre said, at the time, the lawsuit was an “unconstitutional, premeditated attack aiming to dismantle and destroy the NRA — the fiercest defender of America’s freedom at the ballot box for decades.”
In the press release announcing LaPierre’s resignation, the NRA said, “With respect to the NYAG’s allegations, the NRA Board of Directors reports it has undertaken significant efforts to perform a self-evaluation, recommended termination of disgraced “insiders” and vendors who allegedly abused the Association, and accepted reimbursement, with interest, for alleged excess benefit transactions from LaPierre, as reported in public tax filings.”
LaPierre has served as executive vice president of the NRA, the country’s most prominent gun advocacy group, since 1991.
“On behalf of the NRA Board of Directors, I thank Wayne LaPierre for his service,” Cotton said in a statement. “Wayne has done as much to protect Second Amendment freedom as anyone. Wayne is a towering figure in the fight for constitutional freedom, but one of his other talents is equally important: he built an organization that is bigger than him.”
LaPierre has long rankled critics of America’s gun violence problem as the NRA fought to prevent assault weapons bans and tougher background checks.
“The NRA has been in a doom spiral for years, and Wayne LaPierre’s resignation is yet another massive setback for an organization that’s already at rock bottom,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. “LaPierre’s legacy will be one of corruption, mismanagement, and the untold destruction gun violence has brought to every American community. The NRA’s declining membership, finances, and political power spell disaster for the organization heading into the 2024 elections.”
“Thoughts and prayers to Wayne LaPierre,” Kris Brown, president of gun control group Brady, said in a statement. “He’s going to need them to be able to sleep at night. Wayne LaPierre spent three decades peddling the Big Lie that more guns make us safer — all at the expense of countless lives.”
He even has drawn condemnation from those within the NRA. Retired Lt. Col. Allen West, then a member of the Board of Directors, said in May 2019 that LaPierre should have resigned prior to that year’s convention in Indianapolis in April.
“It is imperative that the NRA cleans its own house,” West wrote in a blog post. “If we had done so in Indianapolis, much of this could have been rectified.”
(NEW YORK) — Randy Roedema, a former Aurora, Colorado, police officer will be sentenced Friday after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide and assault in the third degree in the August 2019 death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain.
A jury found Roedema guilty on Oct. 13 in the first trial concerning McClain’s death. Roedema had pleaded not guilty.
For criminally negligent homicide, a class 5 felony, and assault in the third degree, a class 1 misdemeanor, Roedema could face several years in prison.
Another officer, Jason Rosenblatt, who was simultaneously tried was found not guilty on charges of reckless manslaughter, assault in the second degree and criminally negligent homicide. The first officer on the scene, Nathan Woodyard, was found not guilty on charges of reckless manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Two paramedics connected to McClain’s death were separately convicted of criminally negligent homicide in McClain’s death on Dec. 23.
Paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper were accused of administering an excessive amount of ketamine to sedate McClain after his encounter with police.
Cichuniec was also found guilty of assault in the second-degree unlawful administration of drugs. Cooper was found not guilty of assault in the second-degree unlawful administration of drugs.
They were both acquitted of assault in the second degree with intent to cause bodily injury. They had both pleaded not guilty to their charges.
In a statement following the convictions of Cichuniec and Cooper, Elijah’s mother Sheenen McClain said that three convictions out of five “isn’t justice and that the only thing the convictions serve is a very small acknowledgment for accountability in the justice system.”
In August 24, 2019, McClain was confronted by police while walking home from a convenience store after a 911 caller told authorities they had seen someone “sketchy” in the area.
McClain was unarmed and wearing a ski mask at the time. His family says he had anemia, a blood condition that can make people feel cold more easily.
When officers arrived on the scene, they told McClain they had a right to stop him because he was “being suspicious.”
In police body camera footage, McClain can be heard telling police he was going home, and that “I have a right to go where I am going.”
Woodyard placed McClain in a carotid hold and he, Roedema and Rosenblatt moved McClain by force to the grass and continued to restrain him.
McClain told officers during their encounter that he was having trouble breathing. McClain was choking on his vomit while restrained, prosecutor Jonathan Bunge stated in the trial.
When EMTs arrived at the scene, McClain was given a shot of 500 milligrams of ketamine for “rapid tranquilization in order to minimize time struggling,” according to department policy, and was loaded into an ambulance where he had a heart attack, according to investigators.
McClain weighed 143 pounds, but was given a higher dose of ketamine than recommended for someone his size and overdosed, according to Adams County coroner’s office pathologist Stephen Cina in his testimony.
McClain’s cause of death, which was previously listed as “undetermined,” was listed in an amended autopsy report as “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint.” The manner of death remained listed as “undetermined” as it was in the initial report.
He died on Aug. 30, 2019, three days after doctors pronounced him brain dead and he was removed from life support, officials said.
The prosecution in Roedema’s case argued that the officers violated department protocol by using excessive force against McClain. Bunge argued that the two men failed to de-escalate the situation. The defense argued they were following department protocols.
“When Elijah is on the ground handcuffed, he’s saying over and over and over again, ‘I can’t breathe. Please help me,'” said Bunge during opening arguments.
The defense said that the officers followed their department policies and training, instead blaming McClain’s death on the EMTs who later arrived at the scene and gave McClain a shot of ketamine. A defense attorney for Cooper, the EMT, argued there is a lack of protocol for the situation these paramedics found themselves in.
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, MA on 9/8/04. (Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The next batch of documents pertaining to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been released.
The latest batch is about half the number released on Wednesday night when the courts dropped around 40 documents, which consisted of hundreds of pages of testimony and legal filings.
According to a document unsealed Thursday, attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell suggested a reporter for a British tabloid helped Virginia Giuffre sensationalize stories about her alleged sexual encounters with famous men to make her account more marketable to publishers.
The document is included in a second tranche of court records related to Epstein, the sex offender who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. The records are part of a defamation lawsuit Giuffre, an alleged Epstein victim, brought against Maxwell that the two settled in 2017.
Maxwell’s attorneys sought in an unsuccessful effort in 2016 to depose the reporter, Sharon Churcher, who first wrote about Giuffre’s accusations for the Mail on Sunday five years earlier, arguing New York’s reporter shield law did not apply because Churcher was more “friend and advisor” than journalist.
“In that role, she helped manufacture some of the stories that have been denied and that are the central issues in this case,” Maxwell’s attorneys wrote in the now-unsealed motion. “She was actively and personally involved in changing those stories over time and in the creation and addition of new salacious details about public figures.”
Ultimately a judge quashed the subpoena, but Maxwell’s legal team suggested Giuffre’s emails with Churcher supported her assertion that the pair worked together to concoct stories about Giuffre being forced to have sex with Prince Andrew. They point out that in the first article Churcher wrote in early 2011 “there was no suggestion that there was any sexual contact between Virginia and Andrew, or that Andrew knew that Epstein paid her to have sex with his friends.”
Prince Andrew has denied the allegations and claimed he could not recall ever meeting Giuffre. He later settled a lawsuit she filed against him.
Reached by phone late Thursday, Churcher said, “I’m a journalist. There was no conspiracy.”
She added, “Do we really think that the U.S. Government prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell because of Sharon Churcher hatching a conspiracy? It’s absurd. If I were that creative I would be writing Agatha Christie style novels.”
Sigrid McCawley, Giuffre’s lawyer, told ABC News in a statement, “For years, and as if their lives depended upon it, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein led a relentless effort to discredit my client, Virginia Giuffre. But the passage of time and the facts, which have survived subsequent and substantial examination and scrutiny, have proven that the information Virginia provided about being trafficked as a young girl by Maxwell and Epstein is true.”
In 2011, the documents showed Giuffre was talking to Churcher about an article Vanity Fair was writing about Prince Andrew and sought advice about selling the now-notorious photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around her.
“What do you think a good price to sell this to VF should be?” Giuffre wrote in an email to Churcher.
In another email, Giuffre made the unsubstantiated claim former President Bill Clinton had previously threatened the magazine about Epstein.
“When I was doing some research into VF yesterday, it does concern me what they could want to write about me considering that B Clinton walked into VF and threatened them not to write sex-trafficking,” the email said.
Those involved have long denied this claim and Vanity Fair’s editor at the time told the Telegraph in a statement published Thursday, “This categorically did not happen.”
Giuffre has not accused Clinton of wrongdoing in regard to Epstein’s sex crimes. After Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Clinton’s spokesman denied that Clinton knew about Epstein’s crimes, denied Clinton was ever on Epstein’s private island and said the former president had not communicated with Epstein in more than a decade.
Churcher said in response to the subpoena request that she had reported extensively on Giuffre (then known as Virginia Roberts), Jeffrey Epstein and his ties to Prince Andrew, according to a 2016 filing that was not sealed.
“At all times that I was communicating with her (or her agents), I was acting in my capacity as a journalist with Ms. Roberts (or her agents) as my sources, always with the ultimate goal of gathering information to disseminate to the public as news,” Churcher said.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 of aiding Epstein’s sex trafficking of young women and girls. Her appeal will be heard in March.
(NEW YORK) — Celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti deserves to have his conviction overturned because the trial erroneously instructed the jury about the professional duties of lawyers, Avenatti’s lawyer argued Friday to a federal appeals court.
Avenatti was convicted of aggravated identity theft and is serving prison time for defrauding his best-known client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, out of the proceeds of her book contract.
On appeal, his defense argued the trial judge added inappropriate and prejudicial instructions to the jury about the seriousness of Avenatti’s crime because it represented a breach of a lawyer’s ethical duties.
“Anytime a judge adds a qualifier is particularly problematic,” defense attorney Kendra Hutchinson said Friday during an oral argument before a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. “I think this charge should not have been given.”
One of the appellate judges questioned whether the jury charge was really inappropriate, given Avenatti’s professional responsibilities.
“Mr. Avenatti is a lawyer licensed to practice in California,” Judge Steven Menashi said. “So he has been trained in these rules.”
The same judge, however, also questioned whether the trial judge’s remarks gave the jury the wrong impression.
“If you are getting a pretty lengthy speech about lawyers’ duties and a statement about what a particularly serious violation of those duties is and that is relevant to count one then that is inviting the jury to make a decision on count one on the basis of whether Avenatti violated his ethical duties,” Menashi said.
Federal prosecutors argued the trial judge’s actions were proper.
“The judgment of conviction should be affirmed in this case,” prosecutor Matthew Podolsky said. “I don’t see any argument that the charge on the duties wasn’t accurate.”
Avenatti was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for stealing from Daniels about $300,000 she was supposed to receive in connection with a book contract.
“Avenatti stole from his client. He did so to support his own business and fund his own lifestyle. He did so despite presenting himself to the world as his client’s champion and defender and despite using that feigned credibility to secure fame and pursue political influence,” prosecutors said.
The judge allowed Avenatti to serve about half of his sentence at the same time he serves prison time for extorting Nike. He will spend an extra two and a half years in prison for stealing from Daniels.
The judge said the sentence reflected the “abuse of trust” Avenatti demonstrated and a belief he could get away with it because people would believe him over Daniels due to her “unorthodox ” career as an adult film actress.
