‘He stole from me and lied to me.’ Stormy Daniels takes the stand in Michael Avenatti trial

Michael Avenatti tried to undermine Stormy Daniels’ credibility during cross examination by telling the jury that she talks to a doll on her paranormal TV show.

As he began what he claims will be his six-hour interrogation of the porn star, Avenatti said that she claimed she could communicate with the children’s toy named Susan on the show Spooky Babes. 

The doll is said to be haunted with the spirit of a young girl who died in the 1960s, according to the show’s website.

Avenatti, who is representing himself, told the jury in his fraud trial that Daniels also claimed that she had X-Ray vision and can see through buildings.

Daniels shot back that ‘Susan speaks to everyone on the show’, adding: ‘She even has her own Instagram.’

The sharp exchange took place on the fourth day of Avenatti’s trial for allegedly siphoning off $300,000 of an $800,000 book advance that Daniels was owed for her book Full Disclosure.    

Earlier Thursday, Daniels walked into court wearing black heels, a black dress with a slit down her right shoulder and a flowing dark red cardigan.

She sat in the witness box – a plastic box with a filter inside it due to Covid protocols – and took off her mask before brushing back her blonde hair.

Asked by the prosecutor why Avenatti stopped being her lawyer in February 2019, Daniels said Thursday: ‘He stole from me and lied to me.’

Asked what in particular, she replied: ‘Payments from my publisher about my book.’

Daniels gave her name as Stephanie Clifford, her legal name and she appeared nervous, speaking so quickly that the judge had to ask her to slow down.

Prosecutor Robert Sobelman asked her if she was known by any other names and she said ‘Stormy Daniels’, which she said she preferred to be referred to as.

Daniels identified Avenatti as the defendant – he stood up in court as she was asked to do so.

Asked by the prosecutor why Avenatti stopped being her lawyer in February 2019, Daniels spoke in a clear voice and said: ‘He stole from me and lied to me’.

Asked what in particular, she replied: ‘Payments from my publisher about my book’.

Daniels described herself as a ‘writer, director, actress’ who was currently working on a TV series about the paranormal.

During her three hours of testimony, Daniels talked the jury through how she repeatedly tried to get the second and third payments of her $800,000 book contract for her memoir, ‘Full Disclosure’, which was published in October 2018 by St Martin’s press.

The memoir details her affair with former President Donald Trump. 

Prosecutors claimed that Avenatti convinced her literary agent to send him the second payment of $148,000 which he sent on to her a month later after using it to pay his law firm’s bills and payroll.

It is alleged that Avenatti received the third payment, also of $148,000, and never gave Daniels a dime.

Daniels said that in September 2018 she was so angry that the second payment had not been made she messaged Avenatti: ‘I didn’t get paid today. I am not f****** happy. They are in breach of contract’, referring to St. Martin’s Press.

Daniels said she was ‘confused and extremely irritated’ that the payment was late.

That same day Avenatti told her that the publishers had mailed a check to his office and that it would be paid.

Over the subsequent weeks Daniels grew increasingly frustrated when the third payment was delayed as well, even though she turned in the book manuscript.

Daniels’ patience began to ran out in late 2018 and she messaged Avenatti that the publishers were being ‘a******’ and acting like ‘d****’ 

Prosecutors talked Daniels through dozens of text messages she sent to Avenatti in late 2018 and early 2019 begging him for updates about the book.

Sobelman repeatedly asked Daniels whether Avenatti ever mentioned in these messages that not only had he received the payment but had already spent it.

With venom in her voice, Daniels replied that he never did.   

Avenatti tried to stall her by claiming that St. Martin’s press needed a list of her PR appearances to promote the book and that he was threatening them with legal action if they didn’t pay, the court heard. 

Daniels’ relationship with Avenatti came under strain when her fans messaged her that there was a second legal defense fund raising money for her that she didn’t know about.

Avenatti smoothed things over and she agreed to put out a statement he suggested to her.

With a laugh, Daniels told the jury that she added some swear words because ‘my fans know I have a potty mouth’ and she didn’t want them to suspect it was not her own comments.

In December 2018 Daniels pleaded with Avenatti to help her yet again.

She needed the third payment to put down a deposit on a house and get out of a challenging domestic situation.

She wrote that she was ‘trapped’ in her house with her ex-husband who she was splitting up with and that ‘every day (they are in the same house) is one step closer to one of us going to jail.’

By February 2019 the third payment still hadn’t arrived and Avenatti messaged Daniels saying that St. Martin’s press were suggesting a lower third and fourth payment, which was due to be paid soon, as a ‘settlement’.

The jury heard that Avenatti messaged Daniels the low sales numbers for her book: Between October 2018 and January 2019 it sold just 24,000 hard copies and 9,278 ebooks.

Daniels told the court that her contract with St. Martin’s Press was not dependent on book sales – she got paid anyway.

Daniels told the jury she told Avenatti: ‘Hell no!’ to the deal.

By February 13 Daniels had had enough and texted Avenatti: ‘F*** them’, referring to her publishers, who she still believed were withholding her third payment.

Daniels told Avenatti she wanted to sue St Martin’s Press and told him: ‘Now. Find my f****** money’.

Avenatti replied: ‘Word!!!!!!’

Aveantti’s alleged fraud fell apart when Daniels made direct contact with her publishers who sent her the details of the bank transfers.

She told the jury that she saw that the second payment had been made into an account Avenatti set up in her name she didn’t even know about.

The third payment had not only been made, it had been made early, in September.

Daniels told the jury that Avenatti had ‘lied to me almost every day for five months.’

She sent him a screenshot of the bank transfers proving everything as a ‘mic drop.’

Daniels told the jury she wanted to tell Avenatti: ‘I am tired of your lies. Just stop. Come clean.’

Asked how this made her feel, Daniels said: ‘Very, very angry. Shocked. Disbelief. Hurt. I felt very betrayed and stupid.’

Asked how she felt knowing that her third payment had actually been made early, she said: ‘I don’t know if there’s a word stronger than furious. And shocked.’

Daniels said that since the alleged fraud was exposed she has made many public comments about Avenatti, including one that she wanted him to be ‘raped in prison.’

She told the prosecutor that she didn’t actually want it to happen to him, adding that she felt ‘violated’ after what had happened to her.

In February 2018 when she first met Avenatti she said she was an ‘actress, model, dancer and working in adult films’.

They met at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills to discuss how Avenatti could help her get out of agreements she signed with Donald Trump not to talk about their sexual relations.

Daniels said that she next saw Avenatti 24 hours later over lunch and that he offered to represent her for $100 up front.

She signed a contract with him which said he was entitled to a ‘standard hourly fee’ if a legal defense fund was set up.

Daniels said that such a fund was set up and that it made around $650,000.

The contract said that if Avenatti helped Daniels with a book or media deal he would be paid a ‘reasonable percentage to be agreed upon’ by both of them.

Prosecutor Sobelman asked if they ever agreed how much Avenatti’s fee would be if she got a book deal.

Daniels said no.

She also confirmed that she did not sign any other contracts with Avenatti.  

The disgraced attorney’s trial heard Wednesday that Avenatti was so broke at the time he couldn’t make rent payments on his office and ‘teared up and cried’ when somebody else turned him down for a loan. 

He was eventually bailed out in September 2018 by celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, whose clients have included Michael Jackson, Chris Brown and Winona Ryder. 

Geragos agreed to the loan to help out ‘El Presidente’, a joke referring to Avenatti’s mooted run for the presidency at the time, the trial heard. 

Avenatti then used the funds to pay Daniels $148,000 that he owed her for a payment for her 2018 memoir, Full Disclosure. 

Avenatti, who represented Daniels in her lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, is accused of illegally syphoning off $300,000 of an $800,000 payment for her memoir to himself. 

He allegedly forged her signature to persuade her agent to pay the money to him rather than to her as he had previously done.

Avenatti denies wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and is facing up to 22 years in prison if found guilty.

He was sentenced to 30 months in prison last year after being convicted of trying to extort up to $25million from sportswear giant Nike. He has not yet begun serving the sentence.

The once high-powered attorney is also awaiting retrial in a California case – on charges that he cheated clients of millions of dollars – after a mistrial last year.

Court documents filed in the Nike case showed that Geragos, who was involved in negotiations with Avenatti and the sportswear company, tried to warn Avenatti that he ‘crossed a line’.

Geragos ‘was concerned about and uncomfortable with the situation…which Geragos believed may have become extortionate’, a prosecution filing stated. 

Sean Macias, a California lawyer and former friend of Avenatti, gave evidence on the third day of the trial at the federal court in New York.

In early 2018 he introduced Avenatti to Daniels, a porn actress who became shot to infamy after claiming she had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump who allegedly paid her to stay quiet.  

Macias said that over the Labor Day weekend in 2018 he and Avenatti were in Las Vegas at a boozy ‘blow out party’ following a legal conference when his friend seemed ‘agitated’ and ‘a little bit needy’.

As Macias, a colorful, barrel-chested figure, told the court, Avenatti came over and ‘slumped’ in his chair and said that Daniels was going ‘crazy’.

Macias said Avenatti told him she was going to ‘blow up’ the deal with the publishers and go to the press because she wasn’t getting paid the second installment for her book deal.

Prosecutors claim that Daniels had in fact been paid, only Avenatti forged her signature to get her agent to give him the money instead of her.

Macias told the jury that the following Tuesday he was ‘shocked’ to find Avenatti turn up in the conference room of his law firm unannounced while he was out to lunch.

Avenatti claimed he was ‘jammed’ for money and that he was going to be evicted from his office in Los Angeles and couldn’t make his payroll.

Macias said that he was stunned because Avenatti was the ‘top lawyer’ in the state at the time given how he and Daniels were taking legal action against Trump.

Macias claimed that Avenatti asked him for a loan of $250,000 but he said no, remarking that he ‘used the F word with a no at the end’.

Avenatti begged Macias: ‘You’ve gotta help me out, you’ve gotta help me out’, the court heard.

Macias reluctantly called a wealthy tech friend of his and they set up a meeting that evening where Avenatti talked about how he was ‘fighting the good fight’ and taking on Trump.

Avenatti upped his request to $300,000 and the man seemed to be keen to help.

But the next day the friend emailed Macias to say that ‘this transaction cannot happen on such a short time frame’.

According to Macias, Avenatti was ‘really upset’. He said: ‘He teared up crying’.

Avenatti begged Macias to call Geragos, which he reluctantly did and was met with a surprisingly warm reception.

Geragos ‘kind of laughed’ as Macias explained that Avenatti was ‘jammed’ and ‘being squeezed’ by the landlord of his office.

According to Macias, Geragos referred to Avenatti as ‘El Presidente’ and said: ‘Why not?’

The money appears to have arrived in Avenatti’s account that day, September 5, 2018.

According to the indictment, that day Avenatti paid Daniels the $148,750 he got from her literary agent a month prior that she should have already had received.

Prosecutors claim that Avenatti failed to pay her the third payment for an identical sum which was sent weeks later after he requested that it be hurried up.

During cross examination Avenatti, who is representing himself, asked Macias if the money he was trying to arrange for him was actually for his Presidential campaign.

Macias said: ‘Absolutely not’.

Avenatti claimed that Macias was ‘enthusiastic’ about the prospect of him running for the White House.

Macias didn’t deny it and said that while Avenatti wanted him to be his chief of staff he wanted him to ‘make me ambassador of France, that would be awesome’.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephane Cliffod, is expected to testify on Thursday and Judge Jesse Furman denied Avenatti’s request to be able to question her about back payment of taxes and child support payments to her former spouse.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Geragos for comment. 

Source: DailyMail