Avenatti had “been a regular fixture on cable news for his attacks on former President Trump,” prosecutors said in the motion. “Indeed, unlike the news coverage on defendant Girardi, which is predominantly covered by local media, Avenatti was frequently featured in news publications and broadcasts across the country.”
Despite the pretrial publicity, Avenatti’s juror questionnaire revealed that he actually wasn’t that famous, which undermines Girardi’s argument for needing a questionnaire, prosecutors argued.
“Moreover, defendant’s claim that his status as a former ‘legal titan’ … confers wide public awareness of him is undercut by the fact that of the approximately 150 prospective Avenatti jurors who responded to questionnaires, 109 of them (i.e., 73%) had never heard of Michael Avenatti,” they said.
Girardi’s defense team urged U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton earlier this month to issue questionnaires to prospective jurors about their media consumption, saying many may have been biased by highly publicized details about his firm’s alleged theft from clients. The scandal has been featured in news articles, documentaries, and the Bravo reality series “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” which stars Girardi’s estranged wife, Erika Jayne.
