New York (tca/dpa) – Bulldog lawyer Michael Avenatti has lost his bark.
The once-famous attorney choked up Thursday, saying he was ashamed of himself before being sentenced to two years and six months for trying to shake down Nike for more than 20 million dollars.
«I lost my way. I betrayed my own values, my friends, my family and myself. I betrayed my profession. I became driven by the things that don’t matter in life,» Avenatti said in Manhattan Federal Court.
«All the fame, notoriety and money in the world is meaningless. TV and Twitter, Your Honor, mean nothing. Everyone wants to ride in a limo with you but very few are willing to sit next to you on the bus. Even fewer are willing to take your calls from prison.»
Avenatti had only himself to blame for his downfall. His hyperaggressive style, which made him a liberal resistance hero and Trump-world villain, led him to cross a legal line into extortion during negotiations with Nike in 2019.
Avenatti, 50, represented an elite youth basketball coach who claimed that Nike secretly paid the families of top prospects. Avenatti told Nike lawyers the shoe giant should pay more than 20 million dollars to keep the coach quiet, or he’d go public with allegations that would send the company’s stock price plummeting.
«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 for himself. He never bothered to pursue the objectives Franklin had specified,» Judge Paul Gardephe said.
«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 did not apply to him. This is criminal conduct that must be deterred both specifically and generally.»
At the time of the negotiations, Avenatti was a household name.
He rocketed to fame in 2018 through his representation of porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with former President Donald Trump a decade before he took office. Avenatti was a constant presence on 24-hour news channels. He became so famous he toyed with running for president.
But behind the scenes, Avenatti was nearly 11 million dollars in debt. Evidence showed that Avenatti kept his client in the dark about the scorched-earth negotiations with Nike. One attorney for the shoe company described the talks as «a stickup.»
«I’m not f—ing around with this, and I’m not continuing to play games. And I don’t – you know, this isn’t complicated. You guys know enough now to know you’ve got a serious problem,» Avenatti said.
«And it’s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing. A few million dollars doesn’t move the needle for me. I’m just being really frank with you … I’ll go take $10 billion off your client’s market cap. But I’m not f—ing around.»
Gardephe’s sentence, however, is not rock bottom for Avenatti. He faces another trial for allegedly stealing 300,000 dollars from Daniels. He faces a third case in Los Angeles for ripping off clients, lying in bankruptcy proceedings and other financial crimes.
His attorneys had asked for a six-month sentence in prison and one year of home confinement.
«Avenatti’s epic fall and public shaming has played out in front of the entire world … Avenatti’s cataclysmic fall has been well-documented. He is openly mocked by the former President of the United States and his preferred media outlets, to the glee of millions of the former President’s followers and supporters,» Avenatti lawyer Scott Srebnick wrote last month.
«He cannot go anywhere in public without inducing and subjecting himself to vitriolic comments and abuse.»
Stephen Rex Brown, New York Daily News
