Former celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi gets 7 years in prison for stealing millions from clients

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge sentenced disbarred celebrity lawyer Tom Girardi to seven years and three months in prison on Tuesday for embezzling tens of millions of dollars from his clients, including several with severe physical injuries and families of people killed in accidents.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton also ordered Girardi, 86, to pay a $35,000 fine and $2.3 million in restitution to former clients. A jury in August found him guilty of four counts of wire fraud, and he could have been sentenced to up to 80 years in prison.

Girardi is the estranged husband of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne and appeared on the show himself dozens of times between 2015 and 2020.

He was once among the most prominent lawyers in the nation, often representing victims of major disasters against powerful companies. One lawsuit against California’s Pacific Gas and Electric utility led to a $333 million settlement and was portrayed in the 2000 Julia Roberts film “Erin Brockovich.”

But his law empire collapsed, and he was disbarred in California in 2022 over client thefts.

Girardi has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and issues with his memory led another court to put him in a conservatorship under his brother. But on Monday, Staton ruled that he was mentally competent to be sentenced, just as she had previously found him mentally competent to stand trial.

The judge had allowed him to remain free until his sentencing but ordered him to surrender to authorities by July 17.

An email to Girardi’s attorney seeking comment on the conviction was not immediately answered.

Former clients who testified against Girardi at his trial included an Arizona woman whose husband was killed in a boat accident and victims who were burned in a 2010 gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, south of San Francisco.

Prosecutors played jurors voicemails in which Girardi gave a litany of false reasons money that a court had awarded could not be paid, including tax and debt obligations and judge authorizations. He frequently told them, “Don't be mad at me.”

FILE - Attorney Tom Girardi smiles outside the Los Angeles courthouse, July 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s motorcade took a different route than usual to the airport as he was departing Florida on Sunday due to a “suspicious object,” according to the White House.

The object, which the White House did not describe, was discovered during security sweeps in advance of Trump’s arrival at Palm Beach International Airport.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday.

The president, when asked about the package by reporters, said, “I know nothing about it.”

Trump left his Palm Beach, Florida, club, Mar-a-Lago, around 6:20 p.m. for the roughly 10-minute drive to the airport, but took a circular route around the city to get there.

During the drive, police officers on motorcycles created a moving blockade for the motorcade, at one point almost colliding with the vans that accompanied Trump.

Air Force One was parked on the opposite side of the airport from where it is usually located and the lights outside the plane were turned off.

Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for U.S. Secret Service, said the secondary route was taken just as a precaution and that “that is standard protocol.”

President Donald Trump departs Trump International Golf Club in the presidential limousine, known as The Beast, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)