The name Stormy Daniels is synonymous with controversy to some, but while testifying for the prosecution against her former attorney Michael Avenatti, Daniels found herself in the midst of a new legal storm — having to defend her paranormal beliefs in court. Daniels joined host Ian Punnett (Twitter) to discuss details surrounding the trial in which Avenatti was found guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for stealing almost $300,000 from her. "Something wasn't quite right... he seemed too excited about it," Daniels recalled about Avenatti's enthusiasm to take her case. He ended up taking the case for an agreed upon retainer of $100, insisting he would be able to make his usual fees in other ways, she added. According to Daniels, Avenatti did not listen to her and would cut her off whenever she was speaking to him. Daniels admitted she was not comfortable in his presence and was never alone with him for any amount of time.
Despite her initial intuitive response to him, Daniels trusted Avenatti with her legal needs as well as her lucrative book deal, and that's when the trouble began. "Michael took my signature off of that initial retainer agreement and copied and pasted it onto another document that I had never seen before," she explained, noting this allowed him to intercept two installment payments of nearly $300,000 from her publisher. Avenatti blamed the publisher for non-payment, but no one at the book company would respond to her questions about it, she added. Daniels revealed how she was forced by the judge presiding over Avenatti's trial to testify about her paranormal beliefs and claims of being able to commune with dead spirits. She also talked about some of her paranormal experiences as well as her Spooky Babes project.
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Followed by author Charles Pellegrino, who reported on a strange, possibly otherworldly, encounter during an expedition to the Titanic wreck. Pellegrino recounted details from a dive on September 10, 2001, when about an hour into searching Titanic's stern teams from both submersibles on the mission lost power and felt their hauls vibrate. "There was a point I look up... it was a very strange violet light somewhere between about three to six hundred feet away," he recalled, noting after the sighting the power came back up in the submersibles. According to Pellegrino, 12 days later he got a good look at the mysterious violet light which reminded him of a bioluminescence cuttlefish about 20 to 30 feet long. "The Russians have said they've encountered these sorts of things and their estimate was they could go from a full stop to well over 300 miles an hour," he revealed.
Pellegrino also shared his experiences taking his publisher as well as the New York Times to court. He outlined the long history of inaccuracies and omissions printed about him, including the time George Poinar was credited for the idea presented in Jurassic Park of extracting DNA from insects fossilized in amber. The concept was first proposed by Pellegrino and the New York Times refused to make a correction about it. Pellegrino detailed other legal battles, noting in particular one with his publisher which led to a revenge review in the New York Times on his Ghosts of Titanic book several months after it was released. Among other things he was accused of plagiarism and having made up relationships with famous people. Pellegrino's case ultimately went all the way to the New York Supreme Court.