Michael Avenatti, newly sentenced for extortion, faces trial for allegedly defrauding clients

Michael Avenatti, the celebrity lawyer who rose to fame as an antagonist of former President Donald Trump, faces opening statements Wednesday in Los Angeles as part of his second federal criminal trial, just two weeks after he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in a separate case in New York.

Avenatti, 50, is accused in California of defrauding at least five former clients of his former law firm, one a paraplegic, by stealing nearly $10 million in settlement funds from them.

He was originally charged in 2019 in a 36-count indictment that included counts of embezzlement, wire fraud, tax evasion, bankruptcy fraud and bank