(Photo : Getty Images/Drew Angerer)
Michael Avenatti speaks to the press outside federal court.
A federal judge sentenced celebrity attorney turned criminal defendant Michael Avenatti on Thursday to 30 months in custody for attempted extortion from Nike. Avenatti rose to fame when he became the lawyer of porn star Stormy Daniels.
He attempted to extort Nike for a maximum of $25 million. United States District Judge Paul G. Gardephe touted his conduct as "outrageous."
The tearful and guilt-stricken Avenatti was one the abrasive lawyers who formerly represented Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump. He threatened the company with bad publicity. He also rose to prominence by sparring with Trump in public. However, criminal fraud charges on two coasts damaged his rapid clamber.
US District Judge's Reaction
Gardephe in Manhattan remarked that Avenatti, 50, "had become drunk on the power of his platform" in deceiving his client, who is a youth basketball coach, for his own profit. According to Gardephe, "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."
Regardless of the result, Avenatti faces trials in LA later this 2021 on fraud charges. A separate trial will be held in 2022 in Manhattan, wherein he is charged with betraying his former client, porn star Daniels, of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The 50-year-old represented Daniels in 2018 in lawsuits against Trump, appearing often on cable news programs to disparage the Republican as he ruminated on running for president against the former president in 2020. He boasted that he would have no problem raising funds, reported Miami Herald.
According to Daniels in a statement on Thursday, Avenatti was a man you would like to trust and believe in. However, the longer she knew him, she started witnessing his lies and dishonesty until she recognized that she became his victim as well. She was sure that he found a recognition. She hopes this should lead to an honest realization that he must overturn his life, reported Fox News.
Avenatti publicly wept as he spoke before the court on Thursday. He choked up at many points. He also paused in his remarks prior to continuing. Referring to the two mediums that bolstered his rise to fame, he said to the judge that "TV and Twitter, your honor, mean nothing."
According to Gardephe, Avenatti had become "drunk" on his platform's power or what he perceived his platform's power to be. He added the lawyer had become an individual who operated as if the laws and the guidelines that applied to everyone did not apply to him, reported Hypebeast.
Avenatti said he alone had destroyed his career, his life, and his relationships. He ended his statement by staying he expects his three kids, including two teenage daughters who wrote letters to the judge, to be shameful of their father. He added that if they shamefaced, their moral compass is in the exact right place.
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