If attorney/carnival barker Michael Avenatti did not exist, some hack writer — like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Pat Hobby — would have to invent him. This week, Avenatti asked a judge to dismiss criminal charges that he tried to extort sports apparel giant Nike and blamed his arrest on vindictive prosecutors.
The disgraced lawyer also released materials his attorneys say support his claims that the sportswear company was paying amateur athletes. But since even guilty people can be victims of extortion — more-so than innocent ones, truth be told — the move by Avenatti is likely meant to muddy the waters.
Avenatti’s attorneys filed papers Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, saying the creepy lawyer who gained fame by representing fading porn star Stormy Daniels and by taking endless cheap shots against President Trump on social media is being unfairly targeted by the Department of Justice.
The filings claim that Avenatti was facing criminal charges in part because of “his aggressive public persona, long feud with President Trump, and brief entanglement with” New York prosecutors who blamed him for spoiling a planned meeting with Daniels last year in their probe of ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen is serving a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges.
In related news, a former IRS analyst named John C. Fry has pleaded guilty to leaking Michael Cohen’s bank records to Avenatti. Fry faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Vindictive
“President Trump, the leader of the Executive Branch, and his family have demonstrated genuine animus toward Mr. Avenatti,” the lawyers said straight-faced in a pleading filed on behalf of a man who dedicated himself to bringing down the President.
“President Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., gleefully celebrated on Twitter when Mr. Avenatti was arrested on March 25.”
Well, can you blame him?
100% not guilty
Avenatti has pleaded not guilty to charges he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening to publicize claims the sportswear company enabled payouts to promising young athletes and their families.
Avenatti is also charged separately with defrauding ex-client Stormy Daniels in a book deal, and he faces federal fraud charges in California related to clients. He has denied wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Avenatti’s lawyers attempted to buttress his claims against Nike, citing purported evidence that an unidentified University of Kentucky men’s basketball assistant coach exchanged text messages with a Nike youth league director alleging that the company’s plan to pay elite high school players included future No. 1 NBA draft pick Zion Williamson and Romeo Langford, the 14th pick. There was no claim a payment was made.
The filing said a Nike executive who led “Event Strategy” for the Elite League told a colleague “about carrying large amounts of cash through airport security and indicated that she would lie and ‘just say I just sold my car’ if she got stopped.”
Nike said in a statement: “Nike will not respond to the allegations of an individual facing federal charges of fraud and extortion. Nike will continue its cooperation with the government’s investigation into grassroots basketball and the related extortion case.”
Associated Press / Los Angeles Times
One Response
I know you have it in for this guy, but did you just claim that a real writer’s fictional writer would be required to create such a sordid character in fiction?