Stormy Daniels’ new Peacock documentary reveals footage of her early partnership with attorney Michael Avenatti, who guided her through legal battles with Donald Trump before turning around and burning her.
Stormy follows former adult film star Daniels after she burst into the limelight in 2018, when The The Wall Street Journal she reported that Trump arranged to pay her US$130,000 in secret a month before the 2016 presidential election to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter they had years earlier.
When Trump denied the affair even happened, Daniels (represented by Avenatti) sued him for defamation, losing that suit in 2018 and two subsequent appeals. She was collectively ordered to pay more than $600,000 in Trump’s legal fees.
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A new documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look as Daniels weathered the legal storm and tried to reinvent herself as her public profile grew — and in the process, viewers get a glimpse into her fast-paced relationship with Avenatti, who would later be convicted of fraud after stealing an eye $300,000 of the $800,000 advance for Daniels’ book in October 2018. Full disclosure.
Clip from Stormy shared exclusively with PEOPLE shows Daniels — whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford — speaking with Avenatti moments after she publicly described her experience with Trump.
“Did you like my speech?” Daniels asks Avenatti in the clip.
“I thought it was fucking amazing, every time you got on the mic,” he replies. “Every time I come out and talk about you as a person and who you are – I don’t have to lie, I just say it exactly as I see it. I mean it.”
“Thank you,” Daniels says, adding with a laugh, “Keep saying nice things to me, I’m going to take off, because that’s my defense mechanism.”
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The clip continues with the voiceover of Daniels, who says that before meeting with Avenatti, she presented her case to other lawyers – but no one wanted to go near it.
“Some were immediate, like, ‘I’m sorry—it’s too hot for us,’ or, ‘We need a minimum of $100,000 in support,'” she explains in the film.
The video ends with her words: “When I first met [Michael], I thought he was so generous that he didn’t take more than $100 from me. He was the only person who was even willing to not only help me and defend me, but he trusted me.”
Michael Avenatti found guilty of fraud and identity theft for stealing from Stormy Daniels
Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, and her attorney at the time, Michael Avenatti. Heidi Gutman/Disney General Entertainment via Getty
Of course, the clip has an ominous undertone, as viewers know that the attorney-client relationship she once loved eventually fell apart when Daniels discovered that Avenatti kept some of her book deal money for himself — and forged her signature to do so.
“It’s never right to steal money from a client and he forged my signature,” she told NBC News at the time.
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According to the Justice Department, Avenatti stole two installments of Daniels’ book advances, totaling $297,500, and then sent his literary agent “a false and unauthorized letter purporting to be from Daniels and appearing to bear her signature, directing send those future payments to a bank account he controls.”
The DOJ said that after receiving the $148,750 advance, Avenatti “immediately spent the money to meet his personal and business expenses” and later obtained a personal loan to repay Daniels.
Avenatti was his defense attorney at the trial and grilled Daniels for hours as she testified, according toThe New York Times. He was sentenced to four years in prison for identity theft and wire fraud in 2022, and later received an additional 14 years for stealing millions from other clients.
Months after Stormy Daniels’ trial, Michael Avenatti gets another 14 years in prison for stealing from other clients
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Donald Trump has been indicted on 34 felony counts related to alleged bribery payments involving Stormy Daniels.
Andrew Kelly-Pool/Getty
Although Daniels was unsuccessful in her lawsuit against Trump, a New York grand jury indicted the former president in 2023 on allegations that he paid her off, and she has since appeared in court to plead not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in first degree.
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Stormy — produced by Erin Lee Carr and executive produced by Judd Apatow, Sara Bernstein and Meredith Kaulfers for Imagine Documentaries — premieres Monday, March 18, on the Peacock.
Trump’s hush money trial is set to begin this spring.
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Source: HIS Education