by Debra Heine

Disgraced former attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for trying to extort millions from the sportswear company Nike.

The former media gadfly and anti-Trump resistance hero reportedly cried in court as he made a statement thanking his family. According to Washington Post reporter Devlin Barrett, Avenatti admitted “I and I alone have destroyed my career, my relationships, my life, and there is no doubt that I deserve to pay, have paid, and will pay a further price for what I have done.”

In February of 2020, Avenatti was convicted of transmitting interstate communications with intent to extort, attempted extortion, and honest services wire fraud after his attempt to extort millions of dollars from Nike.

Over the course of multiple phone calls in 2019, Avenatti claimed to represent a basketball coach who possessed damaging information about the athletic brand. He demanded $1.5 million for his client, and then $15-25 million for himself to conduct an audit of the company.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman described Avenatti’s conduct as “an old-fashioned shakedown.”

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe agreed, calling it “outrageous” and a betrayal of his clients.

Prosecutors asked Gardephe “to impose a “very substantial” prison sentence on Avenatti and requested that he pay Nike $1 million to cover legal fees,” the Daily Caller reported.

The U.S. Probation Department recommended Avenatti receive eight years in prison. Sentencing guidelines recommended between 9-11 years in prison.

Avenatti’s attorneys requested that he be sentenced to less than six months in prison.

“Avenatti’s epic fall and public shaming have played out in front of the entire world. The Court may take judicial notice of this fact, as Avenatti’s cataclysmic fall has been well-documented,” the attorneys claimed. “He cannot go anywhere in public without inducing and subjecting himself to vitriolic comments and abuse. These circumstances alone would deter anyone in Avenatti’s shoes from engaging in similar conduct.”

Prosecutors disagreed. “The defendant, a prominent attorney and media personality with a large public following, betrayed his client and sought to enrich himself by weaponizing his public profile in an attempt to extort a publicly traded company out of tens of millions of dollars,” the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office noted in a filing last month. “This was an egregious abuse of trust, and it warrants real and serious punishment.”

Gardephe reportedly agreed to the lower sentence “in part because Avenatti’s alleged co-conspirator, prominent defense lawyer Mark Geragos, was never charged.”

Gardephe also took into consideration the alleged “horrific conditions” Avenatti lived in while in solitary detention at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.

“I’ve never seen such conditions. He would show up for trial preparation freezing cold, blue-lipped,” defense attorney Danya Perry told the court.

Avenatti’s fall from grace is a far cry from his halcyon days in 2018, when he was a favorite guest on CNN, and MSNBC, and was considered “the tip of the spear” who would help them take down President Trump.

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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
 

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