Judge orders release of Avenatti financial information July 27, 2021 at 3:51 pm NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge on Tuesday ordered the public disclosure of financial information Michael Avenatti provided to qualify for publicly funded lawyers to defend him against charges he defrauded porn star Stormy Daniels. U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan said the common law and First Amendment rights of public access to judicial documents require that the information be unsealed. “There are no countervailing factors or higher values sufficient to outweigh the public’s right to access the documents,” the judge wrote. Avenatti, 50, faces trial early next year in New York on charges that he cheated Daniels of hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds for her book. Avenatti gained a high public profile as a lawyer who appeared regularly on cable television programs when he represented Daniels in 2018 in lawsuits against then-President Donald Trump.