Let’s just say tough guy attorney Michael Avenatti wasn’t as confident, cocky and bullying as he was being sentenced to 30 months in prison today as he was on a recorded phone call trying to extort $25 million from Nike. Or when he threatened and tried to intimidate former President Trump.
It was judgement day for the disgraced lawyer, and he broke out in tears as he found out he will spend 2.5 years in prison.
What’s worse is his problems aren’t even close to being over, as another court case is awaiting for charges of swindling money from Stormy Daniels.
A lot of interesting things were revealed in the trial, including the fact that Avenatti had been living a lifestyle that cost $200K per month to maintain.
It could have been worse for Avenatti, prosecutors were hoping to lock him up for nine years, so he might have a little bit to be grateful for, and even he realizes he has nobody to blame but himself for getting himself into this mess.
Here’s what he tearfully told Federal judge Paul Gardephe as he was hoping to get a light sentence. “I alone have destroyed my career, my relationships and my life. And there is no doubt I need to pay. I am truly sorry for all of the pain I caused to Mr. Franklin and others.”
Mr. Franklin is Gary Franklin, a basketball coach and former client of Avenatti.
Don’t be surprised if this whole sordid mess is a movie some day. Here’s the Reader’s Digest version of what happened.
A little over three years ago, Avenatti was the brash and loud attorney who represented the former porn star Daniels, who had received a $130,000 hush money payment from Michael Cohen (Trump’s former personal lawyer) before the 2016 election. The idea was to have her keep quiet about her claims that she had sex with Trump years before he got into politics.
In 2019, Franklin hired Avenatti to go after Nike. Franklin believed Nike was paying amateur basketball players and their families in order to get them to wear Nike gear.
Avenatti took things further, when he not only demanded justice and payment for his client from the shoe giant, but he also demanded $25 million hush money for himself. He insinuated that without the payment, he would hold a press conference and reveal what he believed Nike was doing.
In one of the recorded conversations between Avenatti and Nike reps, he claimed he could “take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap.”
He added “I’m not f—-ing around with this, and I’m not continuing to play games.”
That was right before his arrest.
Oh, back when Avenatti was flying high, on CNN almost nightly, he also kicked around the idea of running against Trump for President in 2020.
It’s safe to assume his political career is over before it even got started.
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