Michael Avenatti’s legal team on Saturday requested his trial in Manhattan against his former client, porn star Stormy Daniels, be pushed back two weeks, claiming that the court’s mask mandate violates his constitutional rights to encounter witnesses “face-to-face.”
Daniels has accused Avenatti of cheating her out of about $300,000 in proceeds she was supposed to collect on a 2018 advance from a book about her alleged affair with former President Donald Trump.
Michael Avenatti, left, leaves Federal court in Manhattan, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Opening statements in the trial are scheduled to begin on Monday, though Daniels is not expected to testify until Tuesday, at the earliest.
Avenatti’s legal team filed a motion Saturday, arguing that the Southern District of New York’s mask mandate, requiring everyone in the courthouse remain masked – including trial witnesses – absent proof of a same-day negative COVID-19 test.
“This policy raises the specter that witnesses at Mr. Avenatti’s trial will be masked during their testimony in violation of Mr. Avenatti’s Sixth Amendment fair trial and Confrontation Clause rights,” Avenatti’s legal team wrote.
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“Accordingly, Mr. Avenatti objects to proceeding to trial under this policy and moves for an immediate two-week adjournment of the trial to February 7, 2022, the date originally set by the Court on November 2, 2021.”
The Sixth Amendment’s “Confrontation Clause” ensures that criminal defendants will have the right to be “confronted with the witnesses against him.” According to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute, the “Confrontation Clause” was intended to prevent the conviction of a defendant upon written evidence with the defendant having had the opportunity to face their accusers.
FILE: Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, left, stands with her lawyer Michael Avenatti during a news conference outside federal court in New York, April 16, 2018.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
Citing court precedents, Avenatti’s legal team said there is presently no public policy interest in proceeding with the trial while witnesses are allowed to testify “behind the veil of a facemask” – something that they argued would hurt Avenatti’s ability to “adequately asses the witness’s credibility through a direct, physical encounter.”
On Sunday, Judge Jesse M. Furman slapped down their argument, writing that the “‘specter’ of something purely hypothetical plainly does not warrant an adjournment.”
Furman said the court would take appropriate action in the instances where the mask mandate would interfere with a witness’s ability to testify.
Robert M. Baum, one of Avenatti’s attorneys, told Fox News on Sunday that if the judge is convinced the mask mandate won’t be an issue for the jury or violate Avenatti’s constitutional rights then, “we’re ready to go.”
“We’re looking forward to going ahead with the trial. We were just concerned that our client’s constitutional rights were preserved, and the mask issue is an issue that could adversely affect his constitutional rights,” Baum said. “We’re looking forward to this.”
Daniel’s testimony in Manhattan federal court will be pivotal for prosecutors trying to prove Avenatti, 50, engaged in wire fraud and aggravated identity theft to keep from giving his client money he had received from her publisher.
Michael Avenatti, the once high-profile California attorney who regularly taunted then-President Donald Trump, was introduced to prospective jurors who will decide whether he cheated porn star Stormy Daniels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Avenatti, who once was so popular in some circles that he considered a run for president, has pleaded not guilty to the charges in what will be his third criminal trial in two years.
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“I am completely innocent of these charges,” Avenatti said in a statement issued through a publicist this weekend. “The government is spending millions of dollars to prosecute me for a case that should have never been filed. Meanwhile, they continue to allow Trump and his co-conspirators to walk free and suffer no consequences for their criminal conduct. That is not justice.”
Fox News’ Marta Dhanis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
