The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from former attorney Michael Avenatti on Tuesday as his final attempt to overturn his 2020 Nike extortion conviction fell on deaf ears.
The disgraced former establishment media mainstay, once floated Democratic Party candidate for president, had already lost an appeal of the conviction when a lower court ruled justice was carried out when Avenatti was sentenced to spend two and a half years in prison for the scheme.
The one-time attorney to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels took the case to Washington, but eight of the Supreme Court’s nine justices decided to leave the conviction in place.
NBC News reported Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh was not part of the decision and did not participate in the outcome.
Kavanaugh was notably targeted by accusations of sexual impropriety during his confirmation process, and Avenatti represented one of his accusers.
None of the accusations had merit, and Avenatti at one point during the public hearings defended contradictory statements about the allegations against Kavanaugh.
Avenatti will serve out his sentence in the Nike extortion and fraud case and must then serve more than a decade in prison after a court ruled in 2022 that he stole millions from clients and defrauded Daniels.
In 2019, a high school basketball coach represented by Avenatti alleged Nike was paying youth athletes illegally.
In financial trouble at the time, Avenatti demanded Nike pay his client a sum of $1.5 million and himself $22.5 million in order to put him on retainer and keep the allegations quiet.
When discussing holding a news conference about the allegations on the eve of a Nike earrings call, Avenatti told company executives he would refrain from doing so if he was paid to stay quiet, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.
Avenatti denied he attempted to defraud and extort the company, but a jury convicted him.
“Michael Avenatti used illegal and extortionate threats and betrayed one of his clients for the purpose of seeking to obtain millions of dollars for himself," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said when the scheme unraveled and he was sentenced to prison.
Strauss added, “Not only did Avenatti attempt to weaponize his law license and celebrity to seek to extort payments for himself, he also defrauded his own client. Avenatti will now serve substantial time in prison for his criminal conduct.”
In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Avenatti was not only representing Daniels but was also a frequent political guest on CNN and other networks. He was often brought in to make inflammatory statements about then-president Donald Trump.
By mid-2019 Avenatti said he was considering running against Trump in 2020, and his potential candidacy was pushed heavily by CNN.
Ultimately, his legal woes sent him to a prison cell and not the Oval Office.
Newsbusters reported, following Avenatti's legal troubles, that he made 254 broadcast, cable news, and late-night appearances in a single year. More than 120 of those appearances were on CNN.
