Michael Avenatti may have just hit rock bottom.
The former Stormy Daniels lawyer has suffered a major fall from grace over the past year as he has gone from mouthing off against Trump on television and toying with campaigning for president in 2020 to facing domestic violence charges, criminal investigations, and accusations of bank fraud.
Like they say, pride comes before the fall…
In the latest development, Avenatti has been accused of attempting to extort Nike for millions. He was recently interviewed about the situation and admitted being “scared” and “nervous” about going to jail, despite claiming his innocence.
Check out these tweets announcing Avenatti’s reaction to the charges he is facing:
Here's more from CBS News:
In his first interview since he was arrested on federal charges fraud and extortion, Michael Avenatti denied any wrongdoing but said he is "concerned" about the prospect of prison time.
"Of course I'm nervous," Avenatti said in an interview with correspondent Jericka Duncan airing on "CBS Evening News" and "CBS This Morning." "I am nervous. I'm concerned. I'm scared. I feel terrible for my family. I feel bad for my friends."
Avenatti was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors in New York who said he allegedly tried to extort Nike for millions of dollars by threatening to release damaging information about the company.
On Tuesday, he said "any suggestion" he tried to extort Nike was "absurd."
"There's legal experts that say I was well within the line as an aggressive attorney. There's many that say that. And the fact of the matter is, this was not extortion," he said. "People make threats all the time in connection with trying to settle a case."
Business Insider commented:
Michael Avenatti on Tuesday again proclaimed his innocence on charges he tried to extort millions of dollars from Nike, but in an interview with CBS, admitted he was concerned about doing prison time.
Avenatti, 48, was arrested on Monday following two separate indictments, handed down in federal courts in Los Angeles and New York, that charged him with the alleged Nike scheme as well as embezzlement and fraud over accusations he misused a client's money.
CBS News on Tuesday released an excerpt of an interview it conducted with Avenatti in which he said he was worried about the possibility of going to prison for decades.
"Sure I'm nervous, I'm scared. I'm all those things. And if I wasn't, it wouldn't make a lot of sense," Avenatti said in the brief clip released by CBS on Tuesday.
Avenatti, in a series of tweets earlier on Tuesday, lashed out at Nike and insisted he was innocent.
"I am anxious for people to see what really happened," the flamboyant attorney known for representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels, said in one tweet. "We never attempted to extort Nike & when the evidence is disclosed, the public will learn the truth about Nike's crime & cover-up."
Nike said in a written statement the company "will not be extorted," and that it had immediately alerted investigators to the plot.
According to the criminal complaint, Avenatti told Nike he would go public unless it paid his client $1.5 million and hired him and another lawyer to conduct an internal investigation of the company for between $15 million and $25 million.
The charges were announced on Monday shortly after Avenatti said on Twitter he would hold a news conference to reveal "a major high school/college basketball scandal" reaching "the highest levels of Nike."
Fox News had the following to add about Avenatti's reaction to the charges:
Despite all the controversies, Avenatti remained defiant that he’ll overcome the challenges and come out on top, once again embraced by the media and higher echelons of the society.
But the latest charges in California and New York may have particularly struck a nerve. Avenatti sounded somewhat defeatist during a recent interview when he admitted that he’s “nervous” and “scared” about potentially being put behind bars.
“No, and any suggestion is absolutely absurd,” he told CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan when asked if he tried to extort money from the sports company.
“Nike knew, from the very first moment that I had any contact with Nike, that I was insisting that the truth about what Nike had done be disclosed to federal prosecutors and investigators,” he said on the network.
“The truth is, for years Nike and its executives have been funneling payments to amateur players, high school players and to their handlers and family members in an effort to get them to go to colleges that were Nike colleges and ultimately hopefully to the NBA so they can sign a shoe deal with Nike.”
MAGA = Michael Avenatti Got Arrested! 😂
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