Michael Avenatti's sentencing for extorting Nike is about to begin.
Read more about his sentencing judge recently rejecting his bid for a new trial on a number of grounds—including the fears of an ex-employee turned state's witness.
Avenatti's attorney Danya Perry introduces for the defense table.
Judge Gardephe is rattling off the federal sentencing guidelines and the relevant enhancements, now talking about the one for "abuse of trust."
Avenatti's attorney Danya Perry is now up:
"He feels he's brought enough pain to his parents and visited enough shame to his family."
Perry says Avenatti "lost his way."
"He always had an interest and passion for the law."
"He really did want to be the David fighting the Goliath."
She says Avenatti will address the court later.
Perry has asked for the letters submitted to the court by his teenage daughters to be sealed, citing public abuse of anyone who defends Avenatti.
—Including her, as a female lawyer, Perry adds.
Perry on the recordings extorting Nike:
"They made my skin crawl."
"He lost his way, and he knows it."
Speaking about his epic fall, Perry says Avenatti served "hard time" already including "brutal" conditions of solitary confinement.
That would be enough to deter the general public from following his path.
His law career is over, she says.
Perry questions why Avenatti was charged and his co-counsel in the case Mark Geragos was not.
Perry says her goal in bringing up Mark Geragos is not to offer a "whataboutism" argument, but to put the "unwarranted sentencing disparities" into perspective.
Geragos has not been charged.
Perry says that Avenatti was in the 10 South unit of MCC, a notorious section known for holding terrorism suspects and other high-profile detainees.
"This case wasn't about hard nosed negotiations. It wasn't about tough negotiations... It was about deceit. It was about threats. It was about taking from others. It was about abuse of trust."
The prosecutor slams his treatment of his former client Gary Franklin, the amateur basketball coach whose case he used in his talks with Nike.
AUSA: "[Avenatti] saw Mr. Franklin as a way to get himself rich."
Avenatti speaks
Avenatti:
"Your honor, when I was a child, I dreamed about becoming a lawyer. Other kids dreamed about becoming athletes... but I dreamed about becoming a lawyer, about becoming a trial lawyer."
Avenatti says he dreamed of "fighting for the little guy against the Goliath."
"For years, I did just that, but then I lost my way. I betrayed my values, my friends, my family and then, myself," he says.
"I became driven by the things that don't matter in life."
Avenatti:
"TV and Twitter, your honor, mean nothing."
Avenatti says people want to sit in the limo with you but not ride with you on the bus.
"Even fewer want to take you calls from prison," he says.
His voice cracks as he says he now knows he will never have the "privilege of practicing law again."
Judge Gardephe is about to pronounce his sentence.
The preamble begins:
Gardephe is reciting the facts of the case.
Judge quoting Avenatti: "This is going to be a major fucking scandal. I am going to bring the power of my platform to bear."
“Have you ever held the balls of a client in your hand?"
— another Avenatti quote recited by U.S. District Judge Gardephe
Judge Gardephe:
"Mr. Avenatti's conduct was outrageous. He hijacked his client's claims, and he used those claims to further his own agenda," i.e. extorting Nike.
Franklin was a "convenient pawn" for Avenatti, he adds.
Gardephe:
"Mr. Avenatti became drunk on the power of his platform—or what he perceived his platform to be."
Gardephe tears into Mark Geragos, whom he calls a "central figure in the criminal conduct" and notes was an "unindicted co-conspirator."
Avenatti gets 30 months for extorting Nike. Developing.
"'TV and Twitter, Your Honor, Mean Nothing': Tearful Fallen Trump Foe Michael Avenatti Receives Two-and-Half-Year Sentence for Extorting Nike" lawandcrime.com/high-profile/t… via @lawcrimenews
The government did not recommend a particular sentence, but prosecutors previously intimated that they concurred with the probation department's call for an eight year sentence.
So as many of you are surmising, the judge's sentence is much lighter than that.
Judge Gardephe noted multiple reasons for that, including avoiding sentencing disparities with a man who was never charged: Mark Geragos, Avenatti's co-cousel in the case.
He also cited Avenatti's brutal pretrial lockup in MCC, when it was in lockdown years ago.
This is the backstory of one of the files Duggar is accused of receiving and possessing, made by convicted child rapist and human trafficker Peter Scully.
In this episode, I interviewed a correspondent who covered Scully's crime scene in the Philippines.
It's less the story of Duggar's case than the human trafficking operation behind what one federal investigator described as one of the "Top Five worst of the worst" files allegedly found on his computer.
—and the financiers, alleged accomplices and networks that enabled it.
Tucker would have his viewers believe that this PERSON ONE is an FBI operative rather than someone whose identity is discernible via a Google or Wikipedia search.
As has been widely reported, that person's name is Stewart Rhodes, and more information has been publicly released about other Oath Keepers in the case since it began. washingtonpost.com/local/legal-is…
A pretrial hearing is about to begin in the case against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who currently wants detailed info about the jury pool's media diet.
AG Merrick Garland delivers his remarks on domestic terrorism in a speech dedicated to the Jan. 6th siege of the Capitol. justice.gov/live
"The number of open FBI domestic terrorism investigations this year has increased significantly," Garland notes.
Garland also cites an unclassified IC finding racially motivated and militia extremists are most lethal domestic violent extremist threats. lawandcrime.com/high-profile/d…
"The national strategy recognizes that we cannot prevent every attack. The only way to find sustainable solutions is not only to disrupt and deter, but also to address the root causes of violence."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Lyle Dohrmann is now up, saying that the government has provided a "large, first volume" of formal discovery.
There's a second volume in the works, "somewhat soon."
Followed by a third volume.
U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper wants to know why there is such a large volume for Barnett's case.
Dohrmann says it's not all footage, and some of the size is due to "the defendant's prominence being displayed" in news outlets and interviews, she said.