A federal appeals court on Wednesday tossed one of anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti’s prison sentences, saying a lower court was too harsh on him.
Avenatti pled guilty in federal court to four counts of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of tax laws for bilking clients and using the funds to try to prop up his own business interests, and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
But the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the district judge approved too high an estimate of the losses to his clients, and also erred in slapping him with an enhanced penalty for obstruction of justice.
The appeals court also said the judge should have considered allowing at least some of the sentences to run concurrently with another sentence that Avenatti received for bilking another client, porn star Stormy Daniels, because those two offenses were so similar.
But the judges said that doesn’t extend to a third conviction, for extortion, that Avenatti earned.
The appeals court sent the case back to the lower court in California to deliver a new sentence.
Avenatti was a high-profile lawyer and darling of left-leaning news networks such as CNN and MSNBC who at one point flirted with running in the Democratic presidential primary in 2020. He even registered support in some polls, with party voters appreciating his combative approach to then-President Donald Trump.
His most famous client was Ms. Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford and who battled Mr. Trump over her claims of an affair.
Avenatti’s world came crashing down as federal investigators accused him of a lengthy list of frauds, including tax evasion, bilking clients and an extortion attempt against Nike.
His total sentence across the three cases was 19 years in prison.
He began serving his time in late 2022.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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