BREAKING NEWS – Los Angeles, California – Michael Avenatti is broke and can’t pay his legal fees, the California attorney who has represented the discredited lawyer for more than a year claims.

Dean Steward filed a motion in federal court Saturday detailing Avenatti’s financial woes and is now asking for taxpayer help to cover his costs.

“The bottom line is that Mr. Avenatti has run out of funds, and faces a complex trial lasting as long as six weeks,” Steward wrote in a filing to the federal judge overseeing one of Avenatti’s three ongoing criminal cases. “He is absolutely innocent of all the charges filed against him, and I have no doubt he would be able to pay his legal fees, if he was given the time to rip off some more of his clients.”