(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Disgraced former attorney Michael Avenatti has made startling allegations against his former client Stormy Daniels, the woman at the center of the Manhattan trial against former President Donald Trump.
In a lengthy Twitter statement, Avenatti accused Daniels of committing “fraud and recently falsifying business records to cover-up a crime,” specifically, her failure to fulfill financial obligations to Trump resulting from dismissed lawsuits against him.
Daniels was previously ordered to pay Trump $100,000 in a failed defamation lawsuit she initiated against him in Manhattan. Subsequently, her attempt to file a separate lawsuit in California also failed, leading to a court order demanding she pay $293,000 to the former president.
Here is my statement regarding the testimony of Stormy Daniels. Will DA Bragg pursue charges against her for falsification of business records, fraud, etc. pic.twitter.com/ELPNzfMsIC
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 7, 2024
While Avenatti did not provide evidence to support his allegations, he claimed the existence of a recorded conversation between himself and Daniels’s producer Sarah Gibson. According to Avenatti, Gibson inadvertently disclosed a plan to compensate Daniels covertly.
Avenatti asserted that this conversation, dated June 2023, arose from Gibson’s efforts to enlist him for the controversial documentary Stormy. He maintained that his willingness to participate depended on whether Daniels would receive financial compensation for her involvement.
Allegedly, Gibson admitted that Daniels “was being paid for the documentary, but that because she owed Trump hundreds of thousands of dollars from a judgement Trump was trying to collect,” the documentary’s producers “had to come up with a plan that would allow Daniels to be secretly paid.”
Reacting to the revelation, Avenatti expressed purported shock.
He claimed, “To say I was shocked when I was told this would be an understatement. A woman I had never met or spoken to before he was admitting to me, on a recorded line, that Daniels, she and others had engaged in multiple overt criminal acts… all in an effort to defraud Trump and avoid paying him what he was legally due.”
The former attorney declared his refusal to participate in the documentary due to the alleged “fraud.” The film was ultimately released on March 8, 2024, via streaming platforms Peacock.
Two individuals connected to the film—Sara Bernstein and Meredith Kaulfers of Imagine Entertainment—did not immediately respond to Headline USA’s request for comments.
Headline USA left voicemail messages inquiring whether the film producers would address or challenge Avenatti’s allegations.
Avenatti’s accusations follow his sentencing to 19 years in federal prison for a litany of crimes to which he pleaded guilty, including tax evasion, wire fraud, identity theft and defrauding a former client.
Daniels notably testified on Tuesday in the Manhattan trial against Trump.
