NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on

Wednesday upheld the conviction of disgraced celebrity lawyer

Michael Avenatti for defrauding former client Stormy Daniels,

the porn actress who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with

Donald Trump.

The 3-0 decision was issued by the 2nd U.S. Circuit

Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

Avenatti was sentenced to four years in prison following his

February 2022 conviction for wire fraud and identity theft.

Prosecutors charged Avenatti over an alleged scheme to steal

nearly $300,000 in book contract proceeds from Daniels, whose

real name is Stephanie Clifford, and forging her signature on a

letter to her literary agent.

Daniels was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 presidential

election not to discuss her alleged encounter a decade earlier

with Trump, who won the election.

Trump has denied the encounter took place, and now faces

criminal charges related to the payment.

In the appeal, Avenatti's lawyer said the trial judge

improperly instructed jurors by calling the misappropriation of

client funds a "particularly serious" violation, and making it

seem that Avenatti's ethics violations justified a fraud

conviction.

The lawyer also said the judge wrongly prodded a holdout

juror in open court to change her mind, in what amounted to a

"public shaming."

Avenatti became a fixture on cable TV and Twitter, now known

as X, in 2018 and early 2019 after he began representing

Daniels, who sued Trump to get out of a nondisclosure agreement

she claimed was void.

The four-year-sentence partially overlapped Avenatti's

2-1/2-year sentence from his February 2020 conviction for

extorting Nike ( NKE ), for a combined prison term of five

years.

Avenatti has been serving a total of 19 years in prison,

including 14 years after he pleaded guilty in June 2022 to

cheating four other clients, including a paraplegic, out of

millions of dollars.

He is appealing that sentence. Last August, the 2nd Circuit

rejected his appeal of the Nike ( NKE ) conviction.

The case is U.S. v. Avenatti, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals, Nos. 22-1242, 22-2550.