The judge should not sentence Avenatti to more than 4.5 years for all the charges he is facing due to the reputational damage he suffered from the most recent convictions of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in the case against Daniels, his lawyers said. They included a letter Avenatti had sent to Daniels in which he acknowledged “mistakes [he] made” and said he was “truly sorry.”

“This sobering reality is as sufficient and powerful a punishment and deterrence as any,” his lawyers said. “Worse, Mr. Avenatti’s extreme rise and fall played out on the most public of platforms, an experience he is unlikely to ever recover from reputationally.”

Avenatti was found guilty in February after Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, accused him of stealing nearly $300,000 of the $800,000 advance on her book deal for her autobiography, Full Disclosure, and misled her about what he did with the money. The convicted lawyer defended himself in the trial, justifying his actions by citing several steps he took on Daniels’s behalf.