Meghann Cuniff Profile picture
Oct 11 30 tweets 15 min read
Just filed: Michael Avenatti's sentencing memorandum in his California criminal case. He's asking for six years (72 months).
"...defendant has already been made an example of on a national stage, repeatedly."
Prosecutors' not yet in but should be soon. Image
The full memo is 75 pages. There's also 175 pages of exhibits that include this photo of Avenatti as a child. Image
Here's the full memo. "Defendant’s cataclysmic fall and the resulting humiliation has played out in a very public way, across three years, nationwide and, due to the way he was charged (across three cases and two coasts), repeatedly." bit.ly/3COZ5Mn
Included as an exhibit is this letter Avenatti wrote @StateBarCA in August "to voluntarily relinquish my license to practice law in California and my membership in the State Bar of California effective immediately..." Image
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are calling for Avenatti to serve 17.5 years in prison, on top of his sentences out of New York. The 210-month sentence is a break from what they say the guidelines range is. Image
Here's the full memo. Much more TK. Story soon @lawcrimenews. drive.google.com/file/d/1DwM19f…
My @lawcrimenews article will be up soon, and wow there is a lot to look at in these memos. This is new from @USAO_LosAngeles, Avenatti lying to Michael Eagan, the other name partner for the now bankrupt law firm Eagan Avenatti LLP, in a post-indictment call recorded by the IRS ImageImage
One big thing about prosecutors' recommendation: They're asking (and so is probation) for extra prison time for obstruction of justice, pointing to a tweet Avenatti sent after a @finneganLAT article and to a subpoena he served the wife of a client turned victim during 2021 trial Image
I admit to giving myself a little cheer when I read this part about the Philip Layfield sentencing, because I absolutely called out that case for its similarities to Avenatti back in February. Image
Prosecutors are also pointing to that seemingly phantom tweet from Avenatti back in June when calling for 17.5 years in prison. Image
Then there's this tweet, where Avenatti says he'll release his tax returns if elected president of the United States. Prosecutors point out that he hadn't actually filed his taxes in years. ImageImage
Another USA exhibit: A threatening email Avenatti sent one of the few journalists who reported on his fraudulence, @lewiskamb at @seattletimes. "I have a spotless record with the State Bar."

Avenatti to his paralegal: "Call this guy and confirm he received the below email." Image
Here's a very interesting exhibit: Fresh theft allegations against Avenatti from back in August. By a former client who's currently represented by ex-Avenatti partner Filippo Marchino, who's accused in bankruptcy court of conspiring with Avenatti to hide his assets. ImageImage
Here is my full @lawcrimenews article on the dueling sentencing recommendations for Michael Avenatti. 17.5 years on top of his current five? Or six years concurrent with the five? It'll be up to Judge Selna to decide: bit.ly/3CRzXEI
Here's a 114-page filing accompanying the prosecution memo that is basically a collection of @USAO_LosAngeles' receipts documenting Avenatti's elaborate ripping off of his own clients. bit.ly/3Mwt7b5
And here's a 137-page filing that was filed with the memo, with exhibits that include transcripts of Avenatti's perjurious testimony in judgment debtor exams etc. A lot in here. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
One of Avenatti's exhibits is a letter he got while at George Washington University Law School inviting him to join the Moot Court Board because of "your outstanding performance in the 1997 First-Year Moot Court Competition." Image
Avenatti also includes this page from the @gwlaw website, though prosecutors point out in their memo that Avenatti's donation to the law school came from money he stole from his co-counsel. ImageImage
Here is the @courtlistener (the best!) link to Avenatti's 175 pages of exhibits, which include supportive letters from friends and family. There's also a @gwlaw letter from 1998 inviting him to join the law review. bit.ly/3epR8E0
One of the letters is from Texas lawyer @ricardo_de_anda, who Avenatti work with in 2018 to help children separated from their parents at the border. "...the real and true Michael Avenatti is a caring and respectful man who empathizes with the downtrodden." ImageImage
There's also a letter about Avenatti's role in reuniting children separated from their parents at the border. "She refused to believe it when we told her that Mr. Avenatti had been arrested. In her mind, he is probably
the kindest man in the world."
Also: "I recently learned..." Image
There's also this letter from a woman who said Avenatti reunited her with her six-year-old son in Guatemala after he was taken from her at the U.S.-Mexico border. "He treated us well and he gave us faith. I know that with the help of God, he will get through this." ImageImage
Here's a letter from Rick Kraemer, who is pretty well known in the SoCal legal community.

"People who know I am friends with Michael ask me why I still communicate with him. I tell them the same thing my grandfather used to say ‐ there is good in everyone." ImageImage
There's also a nice letter from a client who recalls Avenatti winning a $42 million jury verdict. The judge threw it out and they ended up with nothing. "I get it, things like that happen." Image
Avenatti also included articles about his cases and a transcript from his @60Minutes interview w/ @andersoncooper about faulty medical gown lawsuit. (Anderson is good friends with book agent Luke Janklow and introduced Avenatti to him, that's how the Stormy book deal came about.) Image
Anyway, there's a ton of stuff in here and I probably shouldn't just stay up all night tweeting about it, but I think a major wow is the transcript of Avenatti's call with Michael Eagan in which he admits forging Eagan's signature on a settlement presented in bankruptcy court. Image
Eagan has always been a mystery. He's never spoken publicly about Avenatti and had little to do with the firm when Avenatti was criminalizing it, besides his last name being all over it, everywhere, all the time. Full transcript starts on page 62 of 137. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
I'll close the thread for tonight with a link to my @lawcrimenews article, which really does cover all this pretty comprehensively. You can just read it and skip all the actual documents if you want. bit.ly/3CRzXEI
One more tweet: Here’s this thread all in one place. threadreaderapp.com/thread/1579975…
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More from @meghanncuniff

Sep 12
He’s sued @JustinBieber and @ArianaGrande. Now a photographer who regularly sues celebrities and companies for sharing his copyrighted photos is suing @MileyCryrus. My quick @LawCrimeNews hit on a busy practice area within intellectual property law. bit.ly/3eKv5aU
Btw, if any “content producer” is looking for a sure-fire crowdpleaser for the celebrity fans with a delightful twist for the legal crowd, cruise through PACER and make a slideshow of all the exhibits showing alleged misuse of this photographer’s images. Here’s
@MileyCyrus'.
Here's an exhibit from an active lawsuit in SDNY against Hesperios, a "creative bureau" in New York currently being sued for infringing the photographer's copyright to this photo he made of @BellaHadid.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 12
Inbox: In Judge Carter/OC oil spill litigation news, looks like he managed to derail a state court proceeding through his complete inability/outright refusal to ever do anything as scheduled. From an @OCDAToddSpitzer press notice on the plea in the superior court criminal case. Image
I briefly wondered last week that the noon start time for Todd and @AGRobBonta’s press conference seemed a little ambitious given Amplify’s 9 am sentencing with Carter, then realized the state v. federal jurisdiction. Turns out I was absolutely on the right track.
Carter’s cases don’t involve Todd or Rob Bonta, but they involve Amplify, and Amplify had a state hearing scheduled the same morning as Carter’s sentencing that the company representatives ended up not being able to make because Carter kept them in court well past 9.
Read 4 tweets
Sep 9
Just in: Los Angeles County has until the end of Monday to file any opposition it might have to @ACLU_SoCal’s request for a temporary restraining order over “deplorable and barbaric” conditions inside LA jails. Image
As my @lawcrimenews article explains, this lawsuit has been around since 1975. 47 years! It’s still open in LA federal court, though it hadn’t been active since 2015. Senior Judge Dean Pregerson was regularly updated on jail conditions from 2007 to 2015. bit.ly/3L0H68q
The original judge was the revered Judge William Gray Jr., who is still well known 20 years after his death and who many especially in Orange County know is the father of retired state judge and former Libertarian vice presidential candidate Jim Gray. lawandcrime.com/lawsuit/revivi… Image
Read 7 tweets
Aug 24
SCOTUS wouldn’t review the case, but U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney is not letting go of his ire about his bench colleagues’ long-over COVID ban on jury trials. He dismissed the case *again* this week and included this photo of himself as an exhibit. Image
Here’s the full order. I was saving this for after the Vanessa Bryant trial because I can’t just cover everything all at once, but two people have now texted me this order and it really is an amazing read. bit.ly/3PUEbz2
Here’s my last article on U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney v. the Central District’s COVID jury trial ban. I also freelanced several articles about this for @latimes’ Times OC. bit.ly/3toAqcF
Read 4 tweets
Aug 24
With LA County’s closing argument at 8 am, jurors could reach a verdict today in Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester’s lawsuits over photos from the crash that killed Kobe and Gianna Bryant and Sarah and Payton Chester. Follow this thread for updates from the courthouse. ⚖️🧵⚖️ Image
County lawyer Mira Hashmall expects her argument to be an hour. Vanessa’s lawyer Luis Li expects his rebuttal to be 30 mins. It’s unclear if Chester’s lawyer, Jerry Jackson, will give his own rebuttal, but Judge Walter will instruct jury after rebuttal, then deliberations begin.
In his closing yesterday, Jackson made his rebuttal an open question, basically launching a preemptive strike against the county’s closing argument.

“I’m not going to start this fight, but I will finish it,” he said. lawandcrime.com/celebrity/jury… Image
Read 14 tweets
Aug 23
It’s the 10th and likely last day of testimony in trial over Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against LA County. @ciara and @MonicaDenise were in court yesterday with Vanessa and Kobe's oldest daughter, Natalia. What's going on in court today? Follow this thread for updates. ⚖️🧵⚖️ Image
Vanessa hadn’t updated her Instagram at all during trial,
but she posted this this morning. It’s Kobe’s birthday. 🎂 Image
Testifying today is to be @LASDHQ Lt. Hector Mancinas, Deputy @LACOFD Chief Dennis Breshears (whose been at the defense table for all this testimony), Chief Andrew Smith and the defense expert psychiatrist, Mark Cohen.
Read 42 tweets

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