Newly Released Details of Avenatti’s Attempted Extortion Show It Was Much Worse Than We Thought

It wasn’t long ago that Michael Avenatti thought he was on top of the world.

He was a regular fixture on CNN, and was praised as the “hero” who would take down out “wicked” President.

He even teased a 2020 Presidential run – and many thought he had what it takes.

We always knew Michael Avenatti was a scumbag. But now he’s also a full-blown criminal.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

According to Daily Wire:

On Monday, celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti — the former attorney of porn star Stormy Daniels who was given inordinate amounts of airtime on mainstream media outlets to level accusations against Donald Trump — was arrested and charged with extortion and bank and wire fraud in an alleged “shakedown” attempt of one of the world’s most influential companies. His alleged co-conspirator is reportedly none other than fellow celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, who has represented embattled actor and singer Jussie Smollett and former NFL QB Colin Kaepernick.

Mark Geragos, for the record, is also a frequent fixture on CNN.

Clearly, CNN keeps company with the best guys around.

As more details emerge, Daily Wire makes it clear that the “truth is stranger than fiction.”

Seriously folks, hold on to your hats. This is a doozy.

The charges against Avenatti have been brought by prosecutors from deep blue states on both coasts: New York and California. Their claims are straight out of a movie: Avenatti attempted to extort tens of millions from Nike with the threat that he’d use his celebrity status to do massive financial and PR damage to them if they didn’t “retain” him and his partner to conduct a faux internal investigation into alleged illegal actions by Nike employees.

One thing is for sure – Avenatti consistently brings the drama.

Here’s where it gets insane:

Harper writes that “in or about March 2019,” Avenatti and an unnamed co-conspirator (“CC-1,” allegedly Geragos) “devised a scheme to extort a company by means of an interstate communication by threatening to damage the company’s reputation if the company did not agree to make multi-million dollar payments to Avenatti and CC-1, and further agree to pay $1.5 million to a client of Avenatti’s.”

As in – Extortion. It’s textbook.

The complaint states that on March 19, Avenatti and his co-conspirator met with attorneys for Nike Inc. and threatened to release their damaging allegations about Nike employees if they didn’t agree to pay them to “‘retain’ Avenatti and CC-1 to conduct an ‘internal investigation’ — an investigation that Nike did not request, for which Avenatti and CC-1 demanded to be paid, at a minimum, between $15 and $25 million.” Avenatti and his partner then spoke again with Nike’s attorney the next day by phone, Avenatti threatening, “I’ll take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap…I’m not f***ing around.”

Talk about idiot criminal. There’s no way this moron got through law school and didn’t realize this was incredibly illegal.

Even crazier is the fact that he thought it would work.

Nike contacted the FBI almost immediately.

After Avenatti’s co-conspirator contacted Nike and demanded an in-person meeting with their legal representatives to discuss a “sensitive matter,” the two attorneys met with Nike’s lawyers on Tuesday in Gerago’s office in New York and presented what they said was evidence that one or more of Nike’s employees had “authorized and funded payments to the families of top high school basketball players and/or their families and attempted to conceal those payments, similar to conduct involving a rival company [Adidas] that had recently been the subject of a criminal prosecution in this district.”

If Nike didn’t agree to pay their client $1.5 million and “retain” the two lawyers for an internal investigation, Avenatti said he’d “hold his press conference” and present the accusations. The complaint states that Nike’s attorney reached out to Avenatti’s partner and asked for more time; Avenatti gave them two more days.

A lot happened in those two days.

Somehow mouth-breather Avenatti didn’t see it coming.

It was at this point that Nike got the feds involved. As a result, the complaint contains a lot of details, including direct quotes from Avenatti threatening Nike if they didn’t agree to his demands.

On a secretly recorded March 20 call, Avenatti told Nike’s attorneys that he expected to “get a million five for our [first client],” threatening, “if you don’t wanna do that, we’re done here.” After reiterating that he wanted at least $10 million not to hold the press conference, the complaint quotes Avenatti as declaring: “I’m not f***ing around with this, and I’m not continuing to play games …You guys know enough now to know you’ve got a serious problem. And it’s worth more in exposure to me to just blow the lid on this thing. A few million dollars doesn’t move the needle for me. I’m just being really frank with you. So if that’s what, if that’s what’s being contemplated, then let’s just say it was good to meet you, and we’re done. And I’ll proceed with my press conference tomorrow … I’m not f***ing around with this thing anymore. So if you guys think that you know, we’re gonna negotiate a million five, and you’re gonna hire us to do an internal investigation, but it’s gonna be capped at 3 or 5 or 7 million dollars, like let’s just be done. … And I’ll go, and I’ll go take 10 billion dollars off your client’s market cap. But I’m not f***ing around.”

“He’s not f***ing around”, capeesh?

Who does this guy think he is? The Godfather?

The next in-person meeting was videotaped. Harper quotes the transcript as documenting Avenatti telling Nike’s attorneys: “I just wanna share with you what’s going to happen if we don’t reach a resolution … As soon as this becomes public, I am going to receive calls from all over the country from parents and coaches and friends and all kinds of people. This is always what happens. And they are all going to say, ‘I’ve got an email or a text message.’ Now, 90 percent of that is going to be bullsh** because it’s always bullsh** 90 percent of the time, always, whether it’s R. Kelly or Trump. The list goes on and on. But 10 percent of it is actually going to be true, and then what’s going to happen is that this is going to snowball. That’s going to be the Washington Post, the New York Times, ESPN, a press conference, and the company will die — not die, but they are going to incur cut after cut after cut after cut, and that’s what’s going to happen as soon as this thing becomes public.”

Translation: Pay me millions upon millions of dollars, or I will slowly bleed you to death.

Nothing says “defender of justice” like blackmail, am I right?

In a final meeting on March 25, which was also recorded by the FBI, Avenatti told Nike, “If this is not papered on Monday, we’re done. I don’t want to hear about somebody on a bike trip. I don’t want to hear that somebody has, that somebody’s grandmother passed away or … the dog ate my homework, I don’t want to hear — none of it is going to go anywhere unless somebody was killed in a plane crash, it’s going to go zero, no place with me…”

Hear that? He doesn’t CARE if your grandma dies. It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.

Avenatti, as per usual, denies everything, and is “highly confident that when all of the evidence is laid bare in connection with these cases, when it is all known, when due process occurs, that I will be fully exonerated and justice will be done.”

Yeah. Ok, bub. That’s literally what you say every single time.

I don’t think he’s getting out of this one.