Avenatti sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for extortion – KIRO 7 News Seattle

NEW YORK – (AP) – A chastised Michael Avenatti, the audacious attorney who once represented Stormy Daniels in trials against President Donald Trump, was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison for attempting up to $ 25 million from Nike by threatening to blackmail the company with bad advertising.

Avenatti, 50, was made famous by publicly fighting Trump, but charges of criminal fraud on two coasts disrupted his rapid ascent. He was convicted last year of attempted extortion and other charges related to representing a youth basketball league organizer in Los Angeles who was upset that Nike had ended its league sponsorship.

US District Judge Paul G. Gardephe called Avenatti’s behavior “outrageous” and said he had “hijacked his client’s claims and used those claims to advance his own agenda of extorting millions of dollars from Nike for himself.”

Avenatti, the judge added, “was drunk with the power of his platform or what he perceived of the power of his platform. He had become someone who acted as if the laws and rules that applied to everyone else didn’t apply to him. “

Before the judge spoke, Avenatti made emotional remarks. He choked on several times and sometimes spoke through tears and said, “I and I alone have ruined my career, my relationships and my life.”

“Your Honor, I’ve learned that all the fame, notoriety, and money in the world are meaningless. TV and Twitter, Your Honor, mean nothing, ”he said.

He ended his testimony by saying what he expected of his three children, including two teenage daughters who wrote letters to the judge.

“Every father wants their children to be proud of them. I want mine to be ashamed. Because when they’re ashamed, it means their moral compass is exactly where it should be, ”he said.

As he and his lawyer left the courthouse in the rain, he stopped short of a microphone set while his lawyer Danya Perry told reporters, “A new Michael Avenatti is deeply humble because of this experience.”

Avenatti’s legal problems are far from over. He is also facing a fraud trial in the Los Angeles area next week, a second California criminal trial later this year, and a separate trial in Manhattan next year, where he will face charges of cheating on Daniels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Avenatti represented Daniels in lawsuits against Trump in 2018 and often appeared on cable news broadcasts denigrating the Republican president. Avenatti investigated how he is running against Trump in 2020, boasting that he “would have no problem raising money”. Daniels said a rendezvous with Trump a decade earlier resulted in her paying $ 130,000 from Trump’s personal attorney to keep silent in 2016. Trump denied the affair.

These political efforts fizzled out when California and New York attorneys charged Avenatti with fraud in March 2019. California prosecutors said he enjoyed a lifestyle of $ 200,000 a month while cheating customers out of millions of dollars and failing to pay hundreds of thousands to the Internal Revenue Service.

Charges alleging he cheated on Daniels out of the proceeds of a bookstore followed weeks later. Avenatti pleaded not guilty on all charges.

Prosecutors called for a “very heavy” sentence, citing the US Parole Department’s recommendation of eight years in prison. Avenatti’s lawyers said six months in prison and one year of house arrest was enough punishment.

In written verdicts, prosecutors said Avenatti tried to enrich himself by “arming his public profile with weapons” in order to force Nike to submit to his demands.

In a statement about the impact of victims, Nike’s lawyers said Avenatti caused significant damage to the company by mistakenly trying to link it to a scandal involving bribes being paid to the families of NBA-linked college basketball players to guide them to powerful programs. An employee of Adidas, a Nike competitor, was convicted of the charges.

The lawyers said Avenatti threatened to cause billions of dollars in damage to Nike and then falsely tweeted that criminal behavior at Nike had reached the “highest level”.

Avenatti’s former client, Gary Franklin Jr., said in a statement from prosecutors that Avenatti’s actions “devastated me financially, professionally and emotionally.”

Franklin and Nike representatives attended the conviction. A Franklin attorney issued a statement saying that his client was grateful to the court for “honoring the very painful experience he had through Michael Avenatti.”

In a verdict, Avenatti’s lawyers said her client had suffered enough, citing tremendous public shame and a difficult prison sentence over the past year that ended after attorneys said he was particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus.

“Avenatti’s epic fall and public shame played out in front of the whole world. The court can take legal notice of this fact as Avenatti’s catastrophic fall is well documented, “the lawyers wrote.

In delivering the verdict, Gardephe stated that “conditions were dire in Manhattan federal detention,” where Avenatti spent 100 days behind bars last year, mostly in solitary confinement. He added that it was hard to believe that such conditions would occur in the US

He noted that Avenatti had shown no remorse, remorse or responsibility for his crimes for a long time until he expressed on Thursday “what I consider sincere repentance”.

The judge said Avenatti deserved some indulgence, as a lawyer who negotiated with him in negotiations with Nike was not charged despite playing a critical role. He said it would not be fair for Avenatti to face a long prison sentence if his co-conspirator was not even charged.

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