Former “90 Day Fiance” star Mike Eloshway is making a bid to get himself a new trial and/or prison sentence, after rotting behind bars for the past few years.

Earlier this week, Mike— who starred with his wife Aziza on the very first season of the show—- filed a motion to have his 10-year prison sentence for possession of child sex abuse materials (CSAM) vacated. In his motion— which has been obtained by The Ashley— Mike claims that his lawyer made critical mistakes during his trial. He still also insists that he never meant to download child p0rnography and instead “unwittingly downloaded it amongst the plethora of files containing the adult p0rnography he sought.”

In his motion, Mike took issue with the way his defense attorney handled jury selection, stating that prospective jurors were never asked about their sentiments about legal, adult p0rn.

He also stated that the final jury— which consisted of 10 women, three of whom were teachers or teacher aides— may have harbored “intrinsic bias against him” because they were morally or religiously against legal adult p0rn.

Mike— who is currently incarcerated at a low-security prison in Ohio— also claims that his lawyer did a lousy job of advising him whether or not to take a plea deal the government had offered. The disgraced TLC star says that, because his attorney wasn’t educated on the technical terms used in the trial, he didn’t give Mike a heads-up about how strong the case was against him. (Mike was offered a plea but chose to go to trial.)

He wrote in his motion that he has a “Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and that right extends to the plea-bargaining process….During plea negotiations defendants are ‘entitled to the effective assistance of competent counsel.'”

Mike insists that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated “when his counsel failed to procure an expert who could evaluate and explain the evidence the government possessed to assess the strength of the government’s case.”

Mike claims that, while his defense attorney did inform him of a plea deal the government had offered him, his attorney didn’t advise him properly on whether or not to accept it, due to the fact that his lawyer didn’t “understand the technology on which the government based its case.” Because his attorney failed to educate himself on the technology, Mike says he was unable to give him “informed strategic guidance” on whether or not accepting the plea deal was his best bet or if he should go to trial. 

He also took issue with several other things his defense attorney did— or didn’t do— during the trial, including failing to get a forensic digital expert, which he says led to his lawyer’s “ineffective assistance during the cross-examination of government witnesses.” Mike claims his lawyer seemed confused and unfamiliar with all the technical terms being thrown around at trial.

Because of this, Mike says he had to “act as an expert witness during his testimony” at his own trial.

“Requiring Mr. Eloshway to act as the de facto defense expert was antithetical to the defense’s theory that Mr. Eloshway had committed the offenses ‘unknowingly,'” the motion claims.

Interestingly, though, Mike is not asking to be let out of prison. He is asking that the court overturn his conviction and sentence and allow him to make his case to be resentenced to the amount of time he would have received had he taken a plea deal and pleaded guilty before going to trial.

“Allow him to plead open to the charges in the Indictment,” the request states. “He asks that the Court reimpose a sentence consistent with what it indicated it would have would have imposed had Mr. Eloshway pleaded guilty in the first instance.”

Mike has always maintained that he never tried or wanted to download the p0rnography that contained minors. Instead, he claimed that would get large filed (sometimes containing over 1,000 individual files) from a sharing site called BitTorrent. Mike claims that he was never searching for CSAM but that it came in these batches. (He stated in court that he would delete any file that contained CSAM).

Mike claimed that this is the reason investigators found 8,000 CSAM images on his computer.

In October 2024, Mike was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison, $15,000 in fines and an additional 10 years of probation once he’s released. (He will be required to register as a sex offender upon release and can only have contact with minors who are approved by his probation officer. This includes the daughter he shares with Aziza, who is now seven years old.) 

It is unknown if Mike and Aziza are still together. She did write a letter asking the judge for leniency before Mike’s 2024 sentencing, stating they were still together at that time. (It does not appear that Aziza has since filed for divorce from Mike.)

This is not the first time Mike has tried to have his conviction and sentence overturned. Last year, he appealed using a similar claim of having an ineffective lawyer. He also claimed that he was given an “unreasonable sentence.” A judge denied his appeal in July 2025.

Mike’s current release date is listed as August 18, 2033.

RELATED STORY: “90 Day Fiance” Season 1 Star Mike Eloshway Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison Following Conviction for Possessing CSAM

(Photos: TLC; Facebook)