California prosecutors to drop final open client-embezzlement charges against Michael Avenatti

• Federal prosecutors in California have apparently had enough of Michael Avenatti.
• In a filing Tuesday, they said they plan to drop the last client-embezzlement charges against him.

Federal prosecutors in California plan to cut Michael Avenatti a break by dropping the final charges in his last open criminal case, a 2019 indictment that alleges he stole $9 million from clients, according to a court filing Tuesday.

The former lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels and one-time Democratic presidential hopeful is already serving five years for stealing book-deal proceeds from Daniels and for trying to extort Nike out of $25 million.

Avenatti will learn his final prison-time tally on Sept. 19, when he will be sentenced on four counts of wire fraud and a tax-related charges from that 2019 indictment that he pleaded guilty to last week.

"Such a sentence would obviate the need for a trial on the remaining counts" in that 2019 indictment, prosecutors wrote.

"Accordingly, the government expects to move to dismiss the remaining counts of the Indictment after sentence is imposed" on Sept. 19, they wrote.

Avenatti faces a potential maximum of 83 years in prison; he is expected to get far less time, though the sentencing will very likely add to his time behind bars.

"He's holding up well under the circumstances," his lawyer, Dean Steward, told Insider of Avenatti, who is in a federal prison near Los Angeles. "He's a very strong individual."