A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday set a "hard and fast" April 21 trial date in a criminal case accusing Michael Avenatti of stealing $300,000 from his former client, the adult film star known as Stormy Daniels.

U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts of the Southern District of New York said the April trial date would give Avenatti and his attorney, Dean Steward, time to file a range of expected motions, including one to dismiss the indictment for vindictive prosecution. The trial, she said, would last about two weeks.

Avenatti, who is facing three federal indictments in two jurisdictions, has claimed that he is the target of a U.S. Justice Department that is out to get him because of his outspoken criticism of President Donald Trump.

Avenatti has already filed a similar motion in a separate case in Manhattan, which accuses the embattled attorney of trying to extort athletic apparel company Nike Inc. for millions of dollars. However, the suggestion Tuesday seemed to chafe Batts, who responded: "This office is not known for being vindictive."

Steward said that his client had made "very, very powerful enemies" within the federal government, including Attorney General William Barr, whom he described as "frankly, the lapdog for Donald Trump."

Asked for comment after the hearing, Avenatti said that while he was under indictment, "the biggest criminal in America occupies the White House, abuses his power, uses the Department of Justice to target his enemies."

"Welcome to Russia," he said.

Avenatti stands accused of diverting two payments of $150,000 from an advance on a book deal being paid to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. At the time, Avenatti was representing Clifford, who said she had engaged in an extramarital affair with Trump—a claim the president has repeatedly denied.

Prosecutors said in a May 22 indictment that Avenatti had forged Clifford's name on a letter to her literary agent and instructed two payments of nearly $150,000 to be sent to a bank account under his own control. According to the indictment, Clifford did not know about the bank account, and half of the diverted sum has yet to be repaid.

Steward said that another pretrial issue would involve voice messages and supposedly hundreds of text messages between Avenatti and Clifford that would be relevant to the case. Steward said prosecutors had turned over 64 pages of texts, but a discovery motion might also be necessary if there are more materials that he needed to obtain.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Sobelman said the government had produced everything Clifford had given them. As for the vindictive prosecution motion, he said, "it's frivolous."

"We are fairly confident that motion has no merit," he told Batts.

Avenatti's pretrial motions are due by Nov. 12, with the government slated to respond the following month. Any reply briefs would need to be filed Dec. 20.

Avenatti also faces charges in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, where he is accused in a sprawling indictment of embezzling millions of dollars from other clients. Batts last month denied Avenatti's request to transfer the Clifford case to that jurisdiction, saying the request would be "unduly burdensome to the government and would be against the interests of justice."

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