![](https://media-cdn.socastsrm.com/wordpress/wp-content/blogs.dir/1479/files/2020/01/5e28e703023d16073306e5cajpeg.jpg)
Judge: No keeping Stormy and Trump out of NY Avenatti trial
NEW YORK — There’s no keeping porn star Stormy Daniels and President Donald Trump out of California attorney Michael Avenatti’s extortion case, a judge said Wednesday as he ordered the trial to commence Monday and refused the government’s insistence that he ban mention of Daniels and Trump.
The protests of a spirited but eventually frustrated prosecutor — Daniel Richenthal — were overruled by U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe during a hearing that set some boundaries for a Manhattan trial slated to last up to three weeks.
Richenthal insisted it would politicize the trial if Daniels and Trump were mentioned to jurors by lawyers trying to explain why Avenatti is famous.
The judge said nothing would make him happier than to keep the names out of a trial pertaining to allegations that Avenatti tried to extort between $15 million and $25 million from apparel giant Nike.