(Adds quote from defense opening statement)
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The trial began on Monday of lawyer Michael Avenatti, a fierce critic of former President Donald Trump, on charges he defrauded his former client, adult film star Stormy Daniels, whom he represented in cases against Trump.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say Avenatti, 50, embezzled https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-avenatti/u-s-lawyer-michael-avenatti-gets-trial-date-on-charges-of-stealing-from-ex-client-idUSKBN1WN2DP $300,000 in book contract proceeds intended for Daniels, in part by forging her signature in a letter to an agent.
"The defendant stole almost $300,000 from the person he was supposed to be looking out for," prosecutor Andrew Rohrbach said in his opening statement. "This case is not about her jobs, what she does for money. It's about a fraud that was committed."
Avenatti, who has pleaded not guilty, faces up to 22 years in prison if convicted of wire fraud and identity theft. In a statement over the weekend, Avenatti said he was completely innocent of these charges.
In his opening statement on Monday, Avenatti defense attorney Andrew Dalack said Avenatti was authorized to accept money on Daniels' behalf, and was entitled to a portion of the proceeds from her book deal.
"This case is a disagreement over money, not a federal crime," Dalack said. "This case is about Ms. Daniels not wanting to uphold her end of the contract that she signed, and her decision to lie and enlist the power of federal prosecutors to go after Mr. Avenatti so she could avoid paying him."
Avenatti gained wide attention and became a fixture on cable TV news when he represented Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Daniels said she had a sexual liaison with Trump and received $130,000 before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for not discussing her encounter with Trump, who denies it happened. Avenatti represented her in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement, which Daniels won, and a defamation case against Trump, which she lost.
Avenatti's career https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-avenatti/michael-avenatti-faces-the-trial-of-his-life-his-own-idUSKBN1ZP0LI ended abruptly in 2019 as prosecutors in New York and California brought dozens of criminal charges that could land him in prison for the rest of his life.
Avenatti is appealing a February 2020 conviction and 2-1/2-year prison sentence https://www.reuters.com/world/us/michael-avenatti-gets-2-12-years-prison-nike-extortion-scheme-2021-07-08 for trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike Inc by threatening to expose its alleged corrupt payments to families of college basketball prospects unless it hired him to conduct a probe.
Nike denied wrongdoing.
Avenatti is separately facing federal wire fraud charges in California from prosecutors who say he embezzled nearly $10 million from five clients.
Since his March 2019 arrest in the Nike case, Avenatti has spent most of his time confined at a friend's California home. (Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Cynthia Osterman and Tomasz Janowski)
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