Michael Avenatti has been temporarily released from prison over coronavirus concerns.
A federal judge granted him a 90-day release after his lawyers argued that because he has had pneumonia in the past, he’s at a greater health risk should he get the virus, according to CNN.
The celebrity attorney was convicted of attempting to extort up to $25 million from Nike in February. He was being held at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting sentencing.
Prior to his arrest, Avenatti gained widespread fame for representing Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who said she had an affair with Donald Trump before he was president and was subsequently paid off.
Before he was taken into custody last March, Avenatti tweeted, “Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.”
“The allegations related to Nike arose out of Mr. Avenatti’s representation of a client identified in the complaint as the coach of an amateur men’s basketball program in California, which prosecutors said had a sponsorship agreement with Nike,” the complaint at the time read.
On March 25, Daniels said in a statement that she cut ties with Avenatti more than a month prior, “after discovering that he had dealt with me extremely dishonestly.”