Former celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti asked the Ninth Circuit to review his revised 11-year criminal sentence, after a federal judge turned down his request for a significantly more lenient sentence.
Judge James V. Selna in the US District Court for the Central District of California declined to take the 14-year criminal sentence down to the three years as Avenatti had requested. He instead imposed a 135-month sentence with a credit of 40 months for time he’s already served.
- Avenatti’s request to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit comes less than nine months after a panel in that court ordered Selna to recalculate his sentence, finding it incorporated an unwarranted enhancement and didn’t take into account the value of legal services and money he provided to his clients.
- Selna was poised at the start of the resentencing to order a ten year sentence, but toughened his position slightly after hearing testimony from one of Avenatti’s former clients.
- Avenatti got his new sentence about a week after fellow former lawyer Tom Girardi was sentenced to over seven years in prison; Girardi’s lawyers have also appealed his judgment.
The case is USA v. Avenatti, 9th Cir., No. 25-3810, 6/17/25.
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