The leftist media was so enamored by Michael Avenatti, the Creepy Porn Lawyer, that Humpty Dumpty, CNN’s Reliable Sources host, believed he would have a real shot at winning the Democrat nomination for President. It would take a miracle for the Creepy Porn Lawyer to ever be elected to the White House, but Michael Avenatti will be moving to a much different big house for 30 months. Today the man who Brian Stelter thought could be president was sentenced for trying to extort Nike as Judge Paul Gardephe of the Southern District of New York sentenced the attorney who he said was “drunk on the power of his platform” for two and a half years in jail.
Stelter And His Buddy in 2019
In 2019 the Manhattan US Attorney’s office charged Creepy Porn Lawyer Avenatti “for attempting to extract more than $20 million in payments from a publicly-traded company by threatening to use his ability to garner publicity to inflict substantial financial and reputational harm on the company if his demands were not met.” Geoffrey S. Berman federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York called it “an old fashioned shakedown.” Avinatti was charged with asking Nike for $1.5 Million for his client Gary Franklin and another $25 million for himself to be hired to conduct an internal review. Mr.Franklin had no idea the creepy porn lawyer was asking for a big chunk of cash for himself.
Avenatti was convicted after a jury trial in February 2020 on all three counts he faced: extortion, transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort, and wire fraud. After many COVID-related delays, sentencing was scheduled for Friday, July 9th at the latest. But in a desperate action, on July 5, the creepy porn lawyer’s lawyers asked a judge for an acquittal or a new trial–it failed.
Judge Gardephe ruled NO WAY and shot down Avinatti’s objection that some email evidence was tossed out:
“Avenatti used Franklin’s confidential information to demand that Nike pay him $15 [million] to $25 million, and he did so without Franklin’s knowledge and to Franklin’s detriment,” Judge Gardephe wrote. “In making any settlement paid to Franklin contingent on Nike paying Avenatti millions of dollars, Avenatti acted with intent to defraud his client.”
The jurist said the court was right to reject Avenatti’s bid to have thousands of text messages between Franklin and Geragos admitted as evidence in support of his claim that he believed the $15 million probe was in his client’s interests, because Avenatti was unaware of the messages at the time and thus could not claim they shaped his thinking.
“A person cannot prove his or her own state of mind by offering evidence of what other people thought,” Judge Gardephe wrote. —
They also asked for a new trial because the prosecutor supposedly withheld some minor evidence about witness Judy Regnier, Avenatti’s former office manager. Regnier told the FBI two weeks before trial that she “felt threatened” by a tweet stating that she might “end up like a Clinton witness.” The ‘Clinton witness’ reference is about that nasty coincidence that some people about to testify about the Clintons end up dead. The prosecution never told the defense about Rengner’s worry, which might have been an issue. But the defense itself didn’t think Regnier’s testimony was a big deal during the trial:
Judge Gardephe ruled on Tuesday that the disclosure would not have mattered because Regnier was an “inconsequential witness.”
“She had no direct knowledge of, and did not testify concerning Avenatti’s alleged crimes,” Gardephe wrote in a 96-page ruling. “To the extent that Regnier’s testimony suggests that Avenatti’s law firm was in financial distress, there was abundant evidence that Avenatti was in financial distress, including a stipulation that unpaid judgments amounting to $11 million had been entered against Avenatti.”
“Regnier’s testimony–which appears on nine pages of the trial transcript–was so inconsequential that defense counsel chose not to cross-examine her,” Gardephe added.
Creepy Porn Lawyer wanted so badly to make sure somebody went to prison. Today he got his wish but not the way he wished as HE was sentenced to prison.
Judge Paul Gardephe of the Southern District of New York, the presiding judge during Avenatti’s 2020 trial, sentenced him to an aggregate sentence of 30 months. The judge said in the New York City courtroom on Thursday, “Mr. Avenatti’s conduct was outrageous. He hijacked his client’s claims and he used those claims to further his own agenda — which was to extort millions of dollars from Nike to enrich himself.” The George W. Bush appointee added: “Mr. Avenatti had become drunk on the power of his platform, or what he perceived the power of his platform to be. He had become someone who operated as if the laws and rules that apply to everyone else didn’t apply to him.”
The Nike case is not the last of the charges leveled against him. He’s still got another set from New York he has to deal with… relating to the money he defrauded from — wait for it — Stormy Daniels. And in California, he’s been indicted for taking millions of dollars from five clients and creating a web of fake companies and bank accounts to cover up his thefts. He’s also been charged with lying to the IRS (and it is not good to piss off the IRS). And then there’s the claim he took money from his former client Stormy Daniels.
H/T Clash Daily.
Michael Avenatti big house
Michael Avenatti big house
