Meghann Cuniff Profile picture
Oct 11, 2022 30 tweets 15 min read Read on X
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
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More from @meghanncuniff

Mar 27
Just in: Judge Roland wants John Eastman disbarred for his 2020 election fraud claims and the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection. Image
Here's the full ruling. 128 pages.

"John Charles Eastman is ordered transferred to involuntary inactive status ... His inactive enrollment will be effective three calendar days after this order is served..."

documentcloud.org/documents/2452…
I remember going to the first day of Eastman's bar hearing in LA back in June along with other reporters including the great @TomDreisbach. Little did we know what a marathon we were in for. 9 months later, a ruling.

Here's Eastman talking to reporters:
Read 7 tweets
Mar 26
24 hours later, still nothing from Diddy's camp about the federal raids at his properties yesterday by Homeland Security agents.

I discussed what it took for the feds to get those search warrants last night on LiveNOW.
Maybe they're talking to TMZ, but they haven't sent me anything.
Diddy’s team emailed me their statement a minute ago.

“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences.” Image
Read 7 tweets
Mar 19
A woman with an “unshakable, delusional belief that she owns or works” at LA Fitness is jailed indefinitely on a civil contempt charge, and her story is a horrifying look at mental illness and the court system.

My latest:
legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/judge-wants-…
I know I’ve got a lot of followers in Atlanta area: There is an ATL connection to this story.

The woman was fired from LA Fitness in SoCal in 2011, then was hired two years later at a gym in Atlanta using a false Social Security number. legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/judge-wants-…
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The cases are different, but it's worth noting that the mentally ill woman jailed for civil contempt involving LA Fitness appears in the same courthouse where Judge Carney is releasing neo-Nazis from jail and dismissing their charges. legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/9th-circuit-…
Read 22 tweets
Mar 6
Just in: The 2nd Circuit has affirmed Michael Avenatti’s convictions for defrauding @StormyDaniels. Nine-page order issued this morning. Image
I’m on the go and can’t immediately post a link to the order but will do ASAP.



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Read 7 tweets
Feb 26
Good morning from Los Angeles, where I’m here for what should be an extraordinary hearing for Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant accused of lying about the Bidens.

It follows an extraordinary order from Judge Otis Wright that said his lawyers likely are trying to help him flee. Image
Here's Judge Wright's order.

A lot of documents are available for free in the Courtlistener file: courtlistener.com/docket/6825562…

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I got to know Judge Otis “Who The Hell Are You” Wright when he presided over a breach of contract trial involving Smokey Robinson.

Law360 reporter Craig Clough and I discussed the judge’s oddities afterward.

Here’s a highlight.
Read 13 tweets
Feb 23
A year before Judge Cormac Carney dismissed charges against white supremacist Robert Rundo, he refused to accept a guilty plea from Rundo’s co-defendant.

The judge asked about defending against Antifa then said he appears to be innocent.

Full article: legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/robert-rundo…
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“The judge dismissed Rundo's charges on Wednesday. Last year, he declined a plea offer from a co-defendant and suggested possible bail after learning of his meth habit.” legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/robert-rundo…
More action in Robert Rundo's case today.

The DOJ says Rundo's fiing last night "lays bare what the government already suspected: defendant intends to continue to try to persuade the lower courts to circumvent this Court’s order requiring him to remain in custody." Image
Read 30 tweets

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