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By Beth Stibal |

Michael Avenatti sentenced today in Manhattan

Trump Lawyer Investigation
Michael Avenatti, lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, speaks outside court Michael Cohen’s sentencing in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018. Cohen was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for an array of crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to two women that he says was done at the direction of Trump. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Former attorney Michael Avenatti faces up to 8 years in prison when he is sentenced today in a Manhattan courtroom for trying to extort money from Nike. The lawyer who once represented porn star Stormy Daniels in a case involving former President Donald Trump was convicted of threatening to give Nike bad publicity if the company didn’t pay him up to $25 million dollars. Prosecutors are seeking up to eight years in prison. Avenatti’s defense is looking for six months and home detention.

Regardless of the outcome, Avenatti faces trials in Los Angeles later this year on fraud charges and a separate trial next year in Manhattan, where he is charged with cheating his former client, porn star Stormy Daniels, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti
FILE – In this April 16, 2018 file photo, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, left, stands with her lawyer Michael Avenatti as she speaks outside federal court, in New York. Trump’s personal attorney wants a federal judge to stop the lawyer for porn actress Daniels from speaking to reporters. An attorney for Michael Cohen filed court papers Thursday night, June 14, 2018, alleging Daniels’ lawyer Avenatti is tainting the case. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Avenatti, 50, represented Daniels in 2018 in lawsuits against Trump, appearing hundreds of times on CNN and other cable news programs to rip Trump as he explored running for president himself against Trump in 2020. Avenatti boasted he’d “have no problem raising money.”

Avenatti’s pink cloud aspirations evaporated when prosecutors in Los Angeles and New York charged him with fraud in March 2019. Prosecutors in Los Angeles said he was enjoying a $200,000-a-month lifestyle while cheating clients of millions of dollars and the Internal Revenue Service of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Charges alleging he cheated Daniels of proceeds from a book deal followed weeks later. Avenatti pleaded not guilty to all charges.