Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti is being held in solitary confinement in the same New York jail cell that once housed Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman “for his own safety” as a high-profile defendant, prosecutors told a judge.
Avenatti, who gained a national profile as a critic of President Donald Trump after suing him on behalf of adult-film star Stormy Daniels, was brought to New York on Friday to face trial on charges that he tried to extort as much as $25 million from Nike Inc. The trial, originally scheduled to begin Tuesday, was postponed after Avenatti was arrested in California Jan. 14 for violating his bail in a separate case.
