By Jerry Lambe @ LawandCrime.com, June 8

A federal judge in California on Monday revised the rules governing Michael Avenatti’s temporary conditional release from a federal lockup in Manhattan, enacting strict measures to ensure that the attorney-turned-convicted felon and noted frequent Twitter user does not have recreational internet access.

Avenatti had been held in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he was awaiting sentencing after being convicted in the Nike extortion case in February. But the worst may still yet be to come in California, where a tax evasion, fraud, and embezzlement case looms large against the one-time celebrity attorney.

In a three-page order, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna of the Central District of California said that Avenatti may have access to a computer for the purpose of reviewing discovery in both of the cases against him, provided that computer has no internet access.

The computer, which will be provided by his defense attorney, must be have “Net Disabler computer software or a comparable software program” to ensure Avenatti cannot access the internet when using the computer. “Defense counsel shall maintain the password for the Net Disabler software and shall not [....]