Michael Avenatti moved to reentry program, still in federal custody
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Disgraced Democratic attorney Michael Avenatti has been moved from federal prison to a halfway house in California, according to Bureau of Prisons records, but remains in federal custody with a projected release date of September 2028.
Avenatti is known for representing porn star Stormy Daniels in her unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump in 2018. Once a media darling with presidential ambitions, he was later convicted of multiple fraud cases and sentenced to years in federal prison.
An official with the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Fox News Digital that Avenatti was transferred from the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) to community confinement supervised by the BOP Long Beach Residential Reentry Management (RRM) Office. It has a projected release date of September 8, 2028.
In 2022, Avenatti was convicted and sentenced to 48 months in prison for stealing close to $300,000 in proceeds from Daniels. At the time of his sentencing, Avenatti was serving a 30-month prison sentence for threatening to extort $25 million from Nike. Avenatti was also sentenced to 14 years in prison in December 2022 for stealing from four clients. One of these customers was paralyzed from the waist down.
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Michael Avenatti leaves the US Courthouse in the Manhattan borough of New York City, USA, on October 8, 2019. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
A copy of the probation order signed by U.S. District Judge James Selna stated that Avenatti must pay $5,937,725.58 in restitution to his victims and that he was ordered to attend a mental health treatment program. Avenatti will remain on supervised release for three years following his release from federal custody in 2028.
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Former attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents himself, cross-examines witness Stormy Daniels during the criminal trial. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)
Avenatti’s early release came after a federal judge reduced his mass prison sentence to eight years in June 2025, allowing some sentences to run concurrently. Avenatti’s outrage came after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated his 14-year sentence in October 2024. He was disbarred in California in February 2025.
Avenatti, Daniels’ libel attorney, became a household name after appearing regularly on television shows. Fox News Digital previously reported that he appeared 121 times on CNN and 108 times on MSNBC between 2018 and 2019, before his legal troubles began.
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Avenatti has been a staunch critic of Trump and said in a 2018 interview on NPR’s All Things Considered that Trump would either resign or be removed from office through impeachment.
“But one way or another, he will not serve a second term,” Avenatti said.
Anderson Cooper disgraced anti-Trump lawyer Michael Avenatti 20 times on his show over a two-month period in 2018; this was more than any other cable news host. (Screenshot/CNN)
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However, the disgraced lawyer has since changed his tone, claiming in April 2024: New York Post He said he was disturbed that the Justice Department was being “weaponized” against Trump.
“No question [the trial] “If the defendant were anyone other than Donald Trump, this lawsuit wouldn’t be filed right now, and for the government to try to file this lawsuit and convict him in order to prevent tens of millions of people from voting for him, I think it’s absolutely wrong and disgusting,” Avenatti told the Post.
Avenatti’s lawyer declined to comment.
