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Nike Extortion Trial US Wants Stormy In If
Avenatti Testifies
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Song
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BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Feb 8 – When after three
days of jury selection the
trial of Michael Avenatti for
allegedly extorting Nike began
on January 29, Assistant US
Attorney Robert Sobelman told
the selected jurors that
Avenatti was supposed to look
out for the interests of his
client, but he did not - he
had a weapon, social
media. More on 1st day
on Patreon here.
On
February 8, Avenatti's lawyer
Scott Srebnick wrote to Judge
Paul G. Gardephe seeking among
other things to preclude
cross-examination about Stormy
Daniel. The US has responded
on this: " clients accused the
defendant of defrauding them,
in the aggregate, of millions
of dollars. The mere fact of
these accusations, which would
have led the defendant to be
concerned that he might owe
even more money to even more
people, and soon, is relevant
to the defendant’s motive and
state-of-mind and impeaches
innocent explanations of his
intent and motive. Moreover,
the Government has far more
than a good-faith basis to
inquire into the defendant’s
fraudulent conduct, which goes
both to his state-of-mind in
March 2019 and to his
truthfulness as a witness. In
particular, the defendant lied
repeatedly, misleading client
into believing the defendant
had not received settlement
funds when, in fact, the
defendant had received and
appropriated those funds. As
to the fifth client—Stephanie
Clifford, a/k/a “Stormy
Daniels”—the defendant
defrauded her of the proceeds
of an advance on a book deal
through the use of a
fraudulent consent purporting
to bear her signature, and
again lied and misled her into
believing that the funds he
had converted to his own use
had never been sent. These
matters are directly relevant
to the defendant’s intent in
this case, and are highly
probative, if not necessary,
for the jury to be able to
evaluate fairly and fully the
credibility of the defendant
as a witness. The defendant
suggests that the Government
should not be permitted even
to ask about any such conduct,
because that would create a
“trial within a trial.” FN 1
The Government reserves the
right to seek to cross-examine
the defendant concerning other
conduct in the event that his
testimony opens the door to
the Government doing so,
including, but not limited to,
if the defendant suggests that
has never defrauded other
clients, carefully follows the
law or his ethical duties,
listens closely to clients,
and/or has achieved the goals
of other clients."
Avenatti also
proffered Carlton Debose, but
not Jamal James. Also
proffered are Casey Kaplan,
Tina Glandian as a proxy for
Mark Geragos, and the elusive
John Slusher - More on Patreon
here.
On February
6, ostensible victim in chief
Coach Gary Franklin began to
be cross examined by
Avenatti's lawyer Scott
Srebnick. Day's live-tweeted
thread here.
Meanwhile
also on February 6, as
jugglingly covered
by Inner City Press, the SDNY
prosecutors' cooperator in
their Adidas prosecutions,
Marty Blazer, got a "time
served" sentence urged by AUSA
Boone. He did a fine job, soon
to be seen on HBO, he said.
But where are the prosecutions
of Nike? More on Patreon here.
On February
5 the Nike lawyer who attended
the meeting in New York with
Avenatti and Mark Geragos was
on the stand. Under cross
examination by E. Danya Perry
he admitted knowing that
invoices were bogus, to Shaun
Manning to move players to
Peach Jam. Day's live tweeted
thread here.
Judge
Gardephe said, You are
objecting to a document you
the prosecutors put into the
record. Again the payments to
Deandre Ayton, mother and
handler Melvin McDonald, to
Bol Bol and to Shaun Manning
Brandon McCoy came up. People
wanted to know more but there
are limits. More on Patreon here.
On January
31 Inner City Press published
the March 25, 2019 draft
settlement agreements, with
dollar figure left blank, here
on Scribed
and on Patreon for
download here,
as well as the more than one
hour video of Avenatti's and
Mark Geragos' meeting with
Nike's outside counsel, Scott
Wilson of Boies Schiller, here.
Inner City
Press has also published three
audio records of Wilson's
conversations on March 20,
2019 with Geragos, and
Avenatti, saying "I'm not
f*cking around." Audio I,
II
and III.
More including transcripts on
Patreon here.
We will
have more on this, here and on
Patreon.
Inner City Press live-tweeted
the start of the proceedings,
here,
and since and will have more.
More
on Patreon here. The
case is US v. Avenatti,
19-cr-373 (Gardephe).
***
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