Avenatti stole $300,000 from Stormy Daniels’s book proceeds, prosecutor says

Assistant attorney Andrew Rohrbach says Avenatti forged Daniels's signature in a letter to an agent as part of the crime

The US lawyer Michael Avenatti stole nearly $300,000 in book proceeds from former client Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor and producer, a prosecutor told jurors in New York on Monday as the once high-flying attorney's third criminal trial in two years got under way.

Prosecutors say Avenatti, 50, who has pleaded not guilty, embezzled book contract proceeds intended for Daniels, who came to worldwide attention when she claimed to have had an affair with Donald Trump before he became president and was then paid to keep quiet about it.