Stormy Daniels' lawyer – the man who sued Trump – and the bid for a giant marijuana farm in the California desert

Amy DiPierro | Palm Springs Desert Sun

Photos by Jay Calderon and Richard Lui | Published June 25, 2018

In the months before he sued President Donald Trump, Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing pornographic film actress Stephanie Clifford, served as the public face of an ambitious bid to construct a marijuana cultivation facility in the California desert.

Since Clifford, who goes by the stage name Stormy Daniels, filed suit against President Trump in March 2018, Avenatti has used cable news to argue her case and critique the White House.

But starting at least in March 2017, before Avenatti took Clifford’s case, he represented a client that has remained out of the national limelight.

Emails, video and planning documents reviewed by The Desert Sun show the attorney spent much of 2017 acting as the representative of a proposed indoor cannabis farm and processing plant in Desert Hot Springs, a small city in Southern California that has marketed itself as a mecca for marijuana companies.

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Stormy Daniels lawyer also represents a large-scale Desert Hot Springs marijuana business Large-scale marijuana grow facility Desert Harvest was represented by the now famous lawyer Michael Avenatti.

In 2017, the California cannabis industry was approaching a turning point. The state was poised to expand from medicinal marijuana to a fully legal adult-use market on January 1, 2018, and marijuana entrepreneurs were eager to capitalize on the growing consumer base by obtaining city approvals, a prerequisite for a temporary state license.

Plans for the project Avenatti represented, Desert Harvest Development LLC, included 1.5 million square feet of cannabis cultivation space, plus room for restaurants, retail and a possible marijuana dispensary. A city staff report estimated the development would employ 520 people once fully developed and generate more than $14 million in marijuana tax revenue a year.

Desert Harvest’s plans received city approval in November 2017, but to date, the company has not purchased a 65-acre parcel of land pegged for the complex. Avenatti wrote in an email to The Desert Sun that the company will purchase the land shortly and still intends to move forward with the development.

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In order to reconstruct the quest to build Desert Harvest, The Desert Sun drew from more than 1,000 emails obtained from Desert Hot Springs through a California Public Records Act request as well as publicly-available meeting records.

Avenatti is copied on more than 100 emails included in the records, but only wrote directly to city officials staff in four email threads. During the other exchanges, Avenatti is a bystander, allowing the local planning firm representing Desert Harvest, MSA Consulting Inc., to take the lead in communications with city personnel.

The documents do not explain the nature of Avenatti’s business relationship with Desert Harvest. In emails to The Desert Sun, Avenatti said he is the project’s outside legal counsel and has no interest in the project.

“I represent over a 100 other corporate clients in various fields and this is no different,” he wrote.

Records show Avenatti attended meetings and signed a permit application for Desert Harvest.

His first email to the city was in March 2017. Writing to Mayor Scott Matas, Avenatti offered to contribute money to a city fund set up to bring a traveling Vietnam War memorial to Desert Hot Springs. He later confirmed that Desert Harvest would donate $8,800.

Caption: While in Desert Hot Springs, Avenatti assisted Desert Harvest in donating to a city initiative to bring a Vietnam War memorial to a local park. (Photo illustration by The Desert Sun)

In an email to The Desert Sun, Avenatti said Desert Harvest directed him to assist with the donation.

In an interview, Matas said he didn’t think Avenatti donated in the hopes of receiving special treatment for Desert Harvest, but out of reverence for veterans. “I believe our staff processes everything the same and I don’t think he was given preference or would be given preference,” he said.

In fact, between May and November 2017, Avenatti and Desert Harvest consultants at MSA noted perceived delays in the city approval process during several email exchanges. In order to handle dozens of proposed cannabis projects, Desert Hot Springs had doubled the number of employees processing development applications between 2015 and 2017, but representatives of Desert Harvest and similar projects still felt the process was slower than they had anticipated.

“As you know, we have a tremendous amount of money and effort at risk on this project,” Avenatti wrote in an email to Desert Harvest’s consultants, which the consultants forwarded to the city in August, “and if it is not up and running by January 1, we are nowhere.”

Caption: In this email message, Michael Avenatti expresses dismay that a city hearing on Desert Harvest would not take place as quickly as he hoped. (Photo illustration by The Desert Sun)

The following month, Avenatti warned in another email to Desert Harvest’s consultants that the principals of the project were “getting very nervous.”

On November 7, 2017, Avenatti attended a City Council hearing in Desert Hot Springs. Desert Harvest was due for a vote on whether to approve the project that evening, but at the last moment, Council members were weighing whether to postpone their decision another month.

Avenatti would not stand to see the vote pushed back.

“Delay on this project is likely the death of this project,” he told the Council in a video of the meeting recorded by the city. “That is a bold statement. It is one that I do not make lightly – but it is, in fact, true.”

The problem was that some amendments to Desert Harvest’s plans had not been included in the Council’s meeting packets. Avenatti said he could understand if officials were reluctant to approve anything they hadn’t been able to read fully.

But Avenatti assured the Council he and MSA could resolve any doubts about Desert Harvest on the spot. He opened his palms face up while he spoke, as if offering to hold their hands through the process.

The last-minute plea worked. Desert Harvest was approved unanimously later the same evening.

But in the months since the project received the city’s go-ahead, Desert Harvest has not purchased the raw desert land needed for its complex, according to Riverside County property records.

The developers had planned to begin growing cannabis in temporary facilities, but the property where they had hoped to build remains untouched.

The California Department of Food & Agriculture, which regulates commercial cannabis cultivators, confirmed it has not received annual or temporary license applications from either of two business entities – Desert Harvest Development LLC and Nature’s Canna Cure Inc. – listed on a permit application Avenatti signed to operate a marijuana facility in Desert Hot Springs.

In an email to The Desert Sun, Avenatti said Desert Harvest has $50 million in capital and intends to move forward on its development.

“The project is proceeding,” he wrote. “They expect to complete the land purchase shortly.”

Desert Hot Springs officials say the last they heard from Avenatti was in December. That is, until he resurfaced in an unexpected place.

“It was a little bit of a shocker when we saw him on the national news,” said Doria Wilms, a spokesperson for the city. “But it didn’t take away from the fact that he is one of many projects here in the city, and we want his project to be developed just like we want everybody else’s.”

MSA Consulting and Marie Scott, a representative of Desert Harvest that only appears a few times in email correspondence with the City of Desert Hot Springs, declined comment for this story.

The land approved for Desert Harvest is owned by the Ludwig Family Trust. Glen L. Ludwig, who is one of its trustees, as well as a real estate agent marketing the property for sale, did not respond to several messages seeking comment. According to an online listing, the property is under contract to be sold.

Avenatti responded to emails, but referred further questions about the project to Desert Harvest. The Desert Sun had not been contacted by any other representative of Desert Harvest at press time.

Many cannabis entrepreneurs contacted for this story were surprised to learn the attorney representing Clifford in her lawsuit against President Trump had dabbled in the local marijuana business. Only a few had connected the dots between the Avenatti they saw on television this year and the Avenatti promoting Desert Harvest the previous fall.

“I thought it was absolutely fascinating,” said Kenny Dickerson, who is developing a cannabis business complex north of the Desert Harvest site. “Shortly thereafter, you see him in the limelight, suing the President of the United States.”

Amy DiPierro covers real estate and business news for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs. Reach her at amy.dipierro@desertsun.com or 760-218-2359. Follow her on Twitter @amydipierro.