Michael Avenatti tests judge’s patience with opening statement at his embezzlement trial

Disgraced pit bull lawyer Michael Avenatti had to be called to heel by an impatient judge on the first day of his embezzlement trial in California on Wednesday.

Avenatti, who is representing himself in the client-theft case, was personally delivering his opening statement when U.S. District Judge James V. Selna reportedly interrupted to rein him in.

“This case didn’t start with a crime, it started with a target,” Avenatti claimed to jurors as he tested the court’s patience, according to KNX1070 News Radio.

“Mr. Avenatti, tell the jury what you’re going to prove,” Judge Selna interjected, reminding the once high-flying attorney that opening statements are opportunities to advocate, not deliver arguments.

Avenatti reportedly took a breath before adding, “And the evidence will show that.”

The new trial in the Orange County city of Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles, centers on charges Avenatti committed wire fraud when he allegedly swindled five clients out of nearly $10 million by dipping into their settlement payments.

In one of the cases, Avenatti allegedly collected a $4 million lump-sum settlement from Los Angeles County on behalf of a client who was injured in jail and left paraplegic. Prosecutors claim Avenatti lied to the client about the hefty payout and only paid him a pittance.

Michael Avenatti is seen outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse on Oct. 8, 2019 in New York. (Alec Tabak/)

Avenatti denies the charges, telling jurors Wednesday he did not “defraud or steal any money, from any client,” according to KNX1070.

The brash lawyer shot to fame in 2018 representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits claiming President Donald Trump paid her hush money in the run up to the 2016 election so she’d keep quiet about their alleged 2006 affair.

Avenatti, 50, quickly became a fixture on cable news channels and even teased a run for the White House.

But his overnight celebrity masked a mountain of debt, prosecutors claim, and Avenatti’s Democratic-darling status came crashing down when he was arrested in March 2019 on Manhattan-based federal charges he attempted to extort Nike for more than $20 million.

He was convicted in the New York case and broke down crying at his sentencing earlier this month as a judge gave him 2½ years in prison.

“I lost my way. I betrayed my own values, my friends, my family and myself. I betrayed my profession. I became driven by the things that don’t matter in life,” Avenatti said in Manhattan Federal Court.

“All the fame, notoriety and money in the world is meaningless. TV and Twitter, Your Honor, mean nothing,” he said.