| Avenatti Was Seeking Justice
From Nike SDNY Jury Is Told As DOJ Punting To
SEC Emerges
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Thread
BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 29 – 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 Patreon here.
And
Avenatti's lawyer Howard
Srebnick in his longer opening
followed up on that theme,
even emphasizing that Avenatti
has, or had, 800,000 followers
on Twitter and could take on a
titan like Nike. He mentioned
Stormy Daniel but as ruled on
by Judge Paul G. Gardephe
before trial, did not name
Colin Kaepernick.
The
first witness was Scott Wilson
who was a lawyer with Boies
Schiller in March 2019 when
Mark Geragos came calling
saying Avenatti wanted a
meeting directly with Nike.
After some back and forth
about meeting at Hudson Yards
or Geragos' office on Fifth
Avenue, the meeting was held.
Wilson said Avenatti began by
saying he had evidence of Nike
paying the number one draft
pick in the last NBA
draft.
Wilson quoted
himself asking Avenatti, Are
who was that?
Assistant US Attorney Matthew
Podolsky asked Wilson why he
asked.
To throw
Avenatti off, Wilson said. But
apparently it didn't. Avenatti
said Deandre Ayton and got
back to the demands. Ulimately
the FBI was called in to
secretly record Avenatti. And
the US Attorney's office never
went after Nike, after jailing
Adidas' Jim Gatto.
There's been
discussion of subpoenas from
the SEC, but as captioned "In
Re Athletic Apparel"
companies. Inner City Press
live-tweeted the proceedings,
here,
and will have more. More
on Patreon here. The
case is US v. Avenatti,
19-cr-373 (Gardephe).
***
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