Jury convicts Michael Avenatti of extortion against Nike (Facing 20 years)

[underpants]

A federal jury in New York on Friday convicted disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti of attempting to extort as much as $25 million from Nike over threats that he would expose misdeeds in the apparel company's grassroots basketball division.

Avenatti, who rose to fame two years ago by representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, was convicted on felony charges of transmission of interstate communications with intent to extort, attempted extortion and honest services wire fraud.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul G. Gardephe will sentence Avenatti on June 17. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

"Today a unanimous jury found Michael Avenatti guilty of misusing his client's information in an effort to extort tens of millions of dollars from the athletic apparel company Nike," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. "While the defendant may have tried to hide behind legal terms and a suit and tie, the jury clearly saw the defendant's scheme for what it was -- an old fashioned shakedown."

https://www.espn.com/

[42bambi]

1. Trump loves to pardon crooks, maybe he'll pardon Avenatti. :)

[TDale313]

4. He loves to pardon allies and see "enemies" convicted

Avenatti seems like an asshole... but I also suspect he would not be in jail if he hadn’t been representing Stormy Daniels.

[Catherine Vincent]

13. Agree

[Renew Deal]

2. Does that mean he's not running for President?

[Takket]

3. I wonder if the DUers who said they would vote for him for president have changed their minds

[WhiskeyWulf]

5. This just makes me sad.

He was highly entertaining for a while there. I wish he hadn't turned out to be a common criminal.

[ffr]

6. Unjust, when we have a band of merry traitors getting away with the destruction of our country.

It's two legal systems at work. I don't disagree with Avenatti's sentence. It's just not just given that the swamp crawlers at the top aren't held to account for anything!

[doc03]

7. How come he has been practicing law for

decades now all of a sudden after opposing Trump he is
convicted of a crime?

[MichMan]

9. Is it your belief that the evidence was all fabricated?

including the FBI wiretaps of Avenatti threatening Nike?

[doc03]

10. Don't know anything about the case just seems

very conveiniant for Trump.

[MichMan]

11. So you think Nike was in on it ?

It seems kind of farfetched to me that the same company that hired Colin Kaepernick as a spokesman would then also conspire with the FBI to build a fake case against Avenatti to curry favor with Trump.

[Smackdown2019]

14. He should

The convicted lawyer should asked for a retrial since he did not pick his jurors and had all the evidence withheld like his friend Donald Duck did in his trial!

[Mr. Ected]

8. I loved the fire and passion he brought to TV when he first came on the scene

I would never have considered him presidential material, but he was articulate and omnipresent. Lawrence O'Donnell, for one, seemed really enamored of the guy.

I don't think this has anything to do with Trump, though. He was dirty, he got caught. Whether D or R, if you're dirty and you're caught, you need to be subject to the laws of the land. That's why it hurts so freaking bad that Trump gets caught red-handed and yet his supposed law and order compatriots in the Republican Party threw a tarp over it and pretended that it was political.

It wasn't political with Trump, and it's not political with Avenatti. It's legal, and he needs to face the music.

[leftstreet]

12. I wonder what the 'misdeeds' were?