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New York (tca\/dpa) – Bulldog lawyer Michael Avenatti has lost his bark.<\/p>\nNew York (tca\/dpa) – Bulldog lawyer Michael Avenatti has lost his bark.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u00abI 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\u2019t matter in life,\u00bb Avenatti said in Manhattan Federal Court.<\/p>\n
\u00abAll 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.\u00bb<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019d go public with allegations that would send the company\u2019s stock price plummeting.<\/p>\n
\u00abMr. Avenatti\u2019s conduct was outrageous. He hijacked his client\u2019s 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,\u00bb Judge Paul Gardephe said.<\/p>\n
\u00abMr. 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.\u00bb<\/p>\n
At the time of the negotiations, Avenatti was a household name.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u00aba stickup.\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00abI\u2019m not f—ing around with this, and I\u2019m not continuing to play games. And I don\u2019t – you know, this isn\u2019t complicated. You guys know enough now to know you\u2019ve got a serious problem,\u00bb Avenatti said.<\/p>\n
\u00abAnd it\u2019s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing. A few million dollars doesn\u2019t move the needle for me. I\u2019m just being really frank with you … I\u2019ll go take $10 billion off your client\u2019s market cap. But I\u2019m not f—ing around.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Gardephe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
His attorneys had asked for a six-month sentence in prison and one year of home confinement.<\/p>\n
\u00abAvenatti\u2019s epic fall and public shaming has played out in front of the entire world … Avenatti\u2019s 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\u2019s followers and supporters,\u00bb Avenatti lawyer Scott Srebnick wrote last month.<\/p>\n
\u00abHe cannot go anywhere in public without inducing and subjecting himself to vitriolic comments and abuse.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Stephen Rex Brown, New York Daily News<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. \u00abI lost my way. I betrayed my own values, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1081459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1095110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actualidad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t