Disbarred, “creepy porn lawyer” Michael Avenatti was released from prison early on Tuesday after serving only four years behind bars.
Despite his release, he’s still not entirely free.
“He’s been ordered to serve more time in a halfway house in Hollywood,” according to TMZ. “He’s also required to participate in mental health treatment and stay away from unlawful controlled substances. His projected release date is September 2028.”
And so he still has over two years to go before he’s a fully free man. The disgraced former attorney also still owes nearly $6 million in restitution.
He should run for governor of California, would be the most serious, ethical Democrat candidate they’ve got https://t.co/FNZinevs27
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) April 8, 2026
Recall that Avenatti was previously convicted of trying to extort Nike and of stealing money from porn star Stormy Daniels.
On July 8, 2021, Avenatti specifically received a 30-month sentence for threatening to extort Nike to the tune of up to $25 million.
A year later, on June 2, 2022, he received a 48-month sentence for stealing almost $300,000 from Daniels.
Months later, in December of 2022, he received another 14-year sentence for stealing money from a paraplegic client.
In the years that followed, Avenatti unsuccessfully tried to overturn his Nike ruling.
“Avenatti’s lawyers argued that the fraud statute under which he was convicted is unconstitutionally vague,” ESPN reported in 2024. “They also contended that Avenatti cannot be criminally charged with plotting to extort money from Nike because he was engaged in settlement negotiations.”
But the Supreme Court didn’t buy it:
Supreme Court leaves in place Avenatti conviction for plotting to extort up to $25M from Nike https://t.co/MQ9CrU0Ds4
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 28, 2024
According to Fox News, “Avenatti’s early release comes after a federal judge in June 2025 reduced his collective prison sentence to eight years, allowing credit for some of the sentences running concurrently.”
The resentencing was approved after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated his 14-year sentence in late 2024.
“The three-judge panel found the trial judge in Orange County made a number of errors in sentencing the disbarred lawyer,” Courthouse News Service (CNS) reported at the time.
For example, the panel said that when the judge who sentenced Avenatti calculated the amount he’d stolen from his clients, including one who was paraplegic, the judge “should have accounted for the value of his legal services and costs, as well as the value of certain payments he made to victims.”
“By finding that Avenatti’s victims ‘lost’ the full settlement value without accounting for Avenatti’s fees and costs, the district court enhanced Avenatti’s sentence based on pecuniary harm that did not occur, and did not ‘result from [Avenatti’s] offense,’” the judges ruled.
The panel also accused U.S. District Court Judge James Selna of having abused his discretion in refusing to “credit (and thus deduct from the losses) the value of payments Avenatti made to Geoffrey Johnson, Alexis Gardner, and Gregory Barela after he misappropriated their settlements.”
Avenatti was notoriously anti-Trump until after he went to prison, telling the New York Post in 2024 that the legal cases against then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump were bull:
“There’s no question [the trial] is politically motivated because they’re concerned that he may be reelected,” he said. “If the defendant was anyone other than Donald Trump, this case would not have been brought at this time, and for the government to attempt to bring this case and convict him in an effort to prevent tens of millions of people from voting for him, I think it’s just flat out wrong, and atrocious.”
“I’m really bothered by the fact that Trump, in my view, has been targeted. Four cases is just over the top, and I think there’s a significant chance that this is going to all backfire and is going to propel him to the White House,” he added.
You know that @TheDemocrats and Leftist Judges have #ScrewedUp when Michael Avenatti defends what’s happening to Trump.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/jVQsnnv5aW
— C-Reason
(@CreasonJana) April 3, 2024
Avenatti even offered to testify on behalf of Trump.
“I’d be more than happy to testify,” he said. “I don’t know that I will be called to testify, but I have been in touch with Trump’s defense for the better part of a year.”
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