Stormy Daniels’ disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti is released from jail on $1m bond over coronavirus fears
FORMER Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti has been freed from prison on a $1million bond because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A California federal judge granted the disgraced lawyer's temporary release on Friday, reports .
Hubert Bromma, author of 'How to Invest in Offshore Real Estate and Pay Little or No Taxes', posted his pal's $1million bail.
After Avenatti's release from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, he was to be quarantined for 14 days.
This will take place at a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility - where he will be tested to ensure he hasn't contracted Covid-19.
Then, after two weeks in isolation, Avenatti is permitted to travel to Los Angeles to stay at the home of a friend for 90 days, ABC News adds.
The celebrity lawyer, 48, was found guilty in the Nike extortion case on February 14.
A jury convicted Avenatti in a criminal trial accusing him of trying to extort Nike Inc out of millions of dollars and defraud a youth basketball coach he represented.
The brash lawyer was all but unknown until two years ago when he began representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump and making hundreds of television appearances.
Scandal
Stormy, the pornographic film producer, director and actor, was at the center of a high-profile scandal in which she claims to have had sex with Trump and paid $130,000 in hush money over it during the 2016 election.
Stormy's ex-lawyer has federal charges in Los Angeles and New York that involve alleged extortion, theft of millions, cheating on taxes and lying to investigators.
In Avenatti's New York case, he allegedly demanded millions to stay quiet about claims that Nike paid high school basketball players to try to steer them toward Nike-sponsored college basketball programs.
He had pleaded not guilty to three criminal counts, saying that they violated the constitutional right to free speech under the First Amendment.
Prosecutors said Avenatti threatened to hold a press conference, based on information from his client Gary Franklin, accusing Nike officials of making and trying to conceal illegal payments to families of top college basketball recruits.
Franklin’s team, California Supreme, had been in the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League.
But the lawyer was found guilty in the Nike extortion case.
Avenatti is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17.
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“Of course there will be an appeal, yes,” Avenatti’s lawyer Scott Srebnick told reporters after the verdict, reported Reuters.
Avenatti also faces scheduled criminal trials this spring in Manhattan on charges he defrauded Daniels out of proceeds from a book contract, and in California on charges he defrauded several other clients and lied to the Internal Revenue Service.
He has been jailed in Manhattan since January 17 after California prosecutors said he violated his bail conditions.
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