Avenatti is "financially unable to employ counsel" and will be represented by Federal Defenders.

[Gothmog]

Link to tweet

[grantcart]

1. Wow.

[pnwmom]

2. Avenatti may have accidentally done Democrats a favor.

Now the SDNY can demonstrate that they don't just go after Republicans -- they go after high profile Democrats, too.

[uponit7771]

3. +1

[jberryhill]

20. What makes Avenatti a "high profile Democrat"?

The USAO-SDNY doesn't need to justify itself to anyone. The US Attorney, as in every district, is appointed by and serves at the pleasure of the President.

Avenatti has never run for office nor served the public in any capacity. He is, and has been since day one, nothing other than a thin-skinned, cowardly narcissist with a talent for attracting the support of the desperately gullible.

[Demonaut]

23. he's better looking than anyone on trumps tem

and you just called a lot of long time DUers "gullible"

[jberryhill]

24. Oh well

Having accused others of being trolls for months for simply telling the truth about his history with Tully's, his former partner, etc. - information which was all known and regularly hidden here at DU - then the gullible folks will just have to suck it up. There is a collection of DUers who went after anyone trying to tell the truth about this despicable person and his toxic personality disorder.

[Demonaut]

40. that settles it then, DU does not have trolls

[jberryhill]

41. DU does have an abundance of folks...

...who believe that a "troll" is "someone who disagrees with me".

But when sourced, verifiable information about court proceedings, such as the long-running dispute between the IRS and Avenatti arising from the Tully's trainwreck, which by no means started recently, is censored as "right wing talking points", then the problem is not one of mere disagreement, but a rejection of objective reality.

[Demonaut]

42. so we do have trolls? or we don't?

I guess we can disagree to agree

[lunatica]

43. LOL!

That is funny!

[jberryhill]

44. I wouldn't know

I post here under my real name, and you can verify my record of political donations and activities. If people didn't use silly pseudonyms in the first place, then there would be a lot less reason to suspect them of being trolls.

Where does one go to sign up for these jobs?

Personally, I don't see why anyone would pay people to screw around with an internet forum which largely consists of older folks who watch TV and post stuff about what they see on it. What's the value proposition? Are DUers some formidable political force of some kind? I doubt it.

The MIRT team seems pretty effective, IMHO.

[bearsfootball516]

26. Just because someone posts on DU doesn't mean they can't be gullible.

I read "Donald Trump can't survive (insert scandal), he's going to be resigning by the end of the month for sure!" posts almost every day here. Louise Mensch, patribotics, politicususa and Palmer Report get posted here on a daily basis.

Heck, I read a post this morning that said Trump won't lose in 2020 because he's going to have Russia add several thousands of votes in all the critical swing states to ensure he wins.

[jberryhill]

32. Louise Mensch

...yah, another one. Her promoters on DU never give a shit that none of her stuff makes actual sense.

Link to tweet

[vsrazdem]

34. You would think they could at least get it right. Its HIPAA.

[pnwmom]

39. Media attention. Stormy Daniels. Self promotion.

I'm not saying he was a good Democrat. I'm saying that his name is very well known, and he's publicly identified himself as a Democrat.

[Chin music]

4. You don't get to be a Fed Pub Defender by being a slouch. He'll have a good defense atty.

He made the right decision. He's going to do his own theory and gymnastics anyway.

[madaboutharry]

5. My uncle was a Federal Defender for many years.

He once told my dad that he doubted if he ever had an innocent client but that it was his job to represent them as if they were.

He then became a Federal Judge during the Clinton Administration.

Avenatti will have a good lawyer.

[TruckFump]

35. Public Defenders are wonderful people.

They take shit from the prosecuters, the public and their clients and still do their jobs. Amen and bless them!

[Jarqui]

6. The IRS and California Justice Attorney said they had

been working on his case for a long time (years)

They'd frozen one of his business bank accounts for payroll taxes some time ago so he started depositing and pay bills via one of his trust accounts for his law practice - which is rather naughty (stated very roughly). They'd been after him for personal taxes going back to 2009-10. You can see in the case docs that they were working on the case without his knowledge for some time. They probably quietly inventoried whatever assets they could and seized them/froze them when he was arrested.

The banks would stop his credit cards either when his accounts got frozen or they heard the news.

He doesn't own his homes or office building. So he's probably tapped out.

Then this happened

Link to tweet

and
Avenatti co-counsel for Nike case, Mark Geragos, was promptly fired by CNN
https://www.thewrap.com/mark-geragos-fired-cnn-commentator-lame-ass-cut-run-network-after-being-fired/

[DontBooVote]

7. LOL, so many people here were sooooo in love with Avenatti. Where are you people now?

[jberryhill]

8. "Remember When..."

[DontBooVote]

10. Credits should be awarded to ever DUer who was punished for being wise to Avenatti. Will that

happen? Fuck no.

[jberryhill]

11. Credits redeemable toward the next Fyre Festival!

I would have gone anyway.

I mean, how awesome to be able to say you were there, amirite?

[DontBooVote]

12. Ahhhh, if only we could turn back the hands of time....

[3_Limes]

22. Ah yes!

The 'Purity in Thought Police' were mighty aggressive and persistent in making sure that as few people as possible could become aware of the facts.

Sure glad we have those folks here!!
/scarcasm

[madaboutharry]

13. When he appeared on tv as Stormy's lawyer,

he seemed to be doing the job.

No one here could have known that he was an alleged tax cheat and an alleged scam artist. How would anyone know? Then Stormy fired him and there was reason to become suspicious.

Of course he has always been obnoxious. But that is something different.

[MichMan]

14. IMO he was using her to further his own deisre for publicity

It was never clear to me that he had her interests first and foremost

[madaboutharry]

15. Stormy agrees with you.

Her statement was that he "dealt with her very dishonestly."

[jberryhill]

18. How would anyone know?

Lol. It was WELL KNOWN.

His fan club on DU kept censoring information about his tax problems and the Tully’s situation by hiding posts about it.

Appearing on TV is NOT “doing the job” of litigating one’s client’s case.

[ProudLib72]

45. Avenatti 2020!

Because hindsight is always 2020.

[USALiberal]

21. I love anyone who rips trump! Nt

[jberryhill]

9. The only thing worse than having Avenatti as your lawyer...

...would be having him as your client.

[hardluck]

17. Ain't that the truth

He’ll have private representation in the CA action- same attorney that previously represented him out here. She’s good so I can only imagine it’s for the publicity not any money as he has none.

[MichMan]

16. Yet Avenatti is still tweeting about the Nike allegations he was threatening to disclose

[jberryhill]

19. Best headline of the week here....

https://deadspin.com/whatever-michael-avenatti-has-on-nike-no-one-really-gi-1833580124

Whatever Michael Avenatti Has On Nike, No One Really Gives A Shit

This Avenatti character rips off his business partners and employees in the Tully's business, rips off all of us by evading taxes for years, rips off his former partners, rips of his clients, uses a PAC as a personal piggy bank...

...and then while he's having his airplane, sports cars, apartments and offices taken away from him, wants us to get into a tizzy over the fact that while the NCAA, colleges and TV networks make billions, Nike was paying some kids to play basketball.

Oh, my fucking GAWD - dark-colored young people were getting PAID to play fucking basketball! We can't have THAT!

And now we have to pay for this shitstain's lawyers.

He just wanted to get paid.

[Celerity]

25. roflmaooooooo

[mr_lebowski]

27. I agree with most of these points, but disagree with one ...

"Nike was paying some kids to play basketball.

Oh, my fucking GAWD - dark-colored young people were getting PAID to play fucking basketball! We can't have THAT! "

The issue is much larger than this. And the word 'some' is a very important part of that issue. As is the fact that this practice is, in fact, illegal.

Should it be? That definitely debatable, but it presently IS.

And yes, a LOT of people do give a shit. Including the NCAA, very much so.

Oh, and everybody NOT getting paid. They are likely to give many shits.

Just saying.

[jberryhill]

28. Well said

The thrust of the article, though, is that Avenatti wasn't looking to rectify anything about the situation. He was just looking to get paid.

[mr_lebowski]

30. Thanks ... glad we agree ...

This is an issue ripe for reform is the truth, and Avenatti sure as shit wasn't out for that, clearly

But I do take issue with that part of the article and think it degrades the quality overall.

Athletes not getting paid for college sports is not a racism thing, as is implied, and I think that's a bit of a cheap shot. I think it has a LOT to do with it just being a NIGHTMARE, administratively, to allow to occur. It's much easier to just say 'nobody gets to take things of value' ... and be done with it.

I'll buy Avenatti is a greedy, shady asshole, but I'm not going to pin 'racist' on the man ... certainly not based on this sort of evidence.

[secondwind]

29. Well, he sure fooled me.

I liked him because of his attacks on Trump. But there was always a layer of “sleaze” about him.

Good riddance.

[delisen]

31. He is planning on defending himself.

I pity the public defender.

[jberryhill]

33. He'd be better off buying a white Bronco

[delisen]

36. Yes! I'd like to watch Avenatti try to top that

[jberryhill]

37. Tell him everyone will watch it on TV, and he'll be on it like white on rice

[meow2u3]

38. So Avenatti is being nailed for the exact same scheme Trump has been up to for decades?

If Avenatti is in trouble, why isn't Moscow Mussolini?

[JI7]

46. because our side doesn't cover for him the way the right does for trump

[Jarqui]

47. More details

Did Michael Avenatti Stiff Beauty Vlogger Michelle Phan?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/did-michael-avenatti-stiff-beauty-vlogger-michelle-phan?via=twitter_page

The Sleaziest Things the Feds Say Avenatti Did
https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-avenatti-arrest-the-sleaziest-things-the-feds-say-he-did

He's locked his twitter account and withdrawn posts he made on the Nike scandal.
Nike's stock dipped and bounced back after his arrest.

Seagram's heiress Clare Bronfman says she briefly hired and fired him for the NXIVM case.

He's now a punch line for the Trumps.

[912gdm]

48. Sooooooo.. #basta ?

or is it too soon?