53percenter's Blog

Attorney Michael Avenatti gained a level of fame on the left and infamy on the right with his representation of porn star Stormy Daniels in her failed lawsuit against President Donald Trump over a non-disclosure agreement about an alleged affair a dozen years ago.

His star began to fade in October 2018 when he helped raise absurd and unsubstantiated allegations of gang rape against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

But now, the lawyer is in utter disgrace as he was arrested and charged Monday with attempted extortion and making threats against Nike.

Incredibly, just one hour prior to the announcement on Monday of the federal felony charges against him, Avenatti had actually tweeted out a blatant and direct threat against the athletic apparel company, which will no doubt now be used as even more evidence against him.

Avenatti tweeted, “Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.”

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Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 25, 2019

That tweet is timestamped 12:26. Avenatti was arrested about 12:30 at Nike’s attorneys’ offices, according to CNBC.

As it turns out, the only “criminal conduct” in this instance was apparently Avenatti’s effort to extort upwards of $25 million from the company in exchange for refraining from launching a public campaign designed to ruin the company financially.

The timing of Avenatti’s tweet as it related to the announced charges against him drew a response from The Western Journal’s Managing Editor George Upper, who tweeted, “I wonder if the FBI was waiting for this tweet to go out before they served the warrant for your arrest. Hope you know a good lawyer.”

I wonder if the FBI was waiting for this tweet to go out before they served the warrant for your arrest.

Hope you know a good lawyer. https://t.co/bJ92YcFluo

— The Upper Cut (@georgeupper) March 25, 2019

Avenatti’s attempt to extort Nike would appear to be in violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Section 875(d), which states: “Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee … or any threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

Indeed, the 11-page complaint filed against Avenatti in the Southern District of New York cited 875(d) as one of several statutes the disgraceful attorney was accused of violating, and Avenatti’s threatening tweet Monday morning only served to bolster the case against him.

According to the complaint, Avenatti and an unnamed co-conspirator threatened to purposely damage the reputation and stock value of Nike if the company refused his demands to not only pay one of his clients $1.5 million, but also tens of millions of dollars to himself and the co-conspirator.

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Just one week prior, Avenatti had met with attorneys for Nike and threatened to release damaging information to the public if his demands were not met, or else he would “take ten billion dollars off your client’s market cap.”

According to the complaint, Avenatti’s attempted extortion revolved around an initial threatened press conference to expose alleged misconduct by Nike employees on the eve of the NCAA basketball tournament and a quarterly earnings call by the corporation.

In order to refrain from doing so, Avenatti demanded during an in-person meeting the payment of $1.5 million to his client — an amateur basketball coach with alleged evidence Nike had paid top players — and that Nike hire him to conduct an “internal investigation” for a retainer fee of $15-25 million, or a simple settlement of $22.5 million.

Unfortunately for Avenatti, Nike tipped off federal authorities and a subsequent phone call, as well as another in-person meeting the following day, to discuss the proposed deal was recorded on both audio and video and monitored by federal agents.

The recordings captured numerous explicit threats issued by Avenatti against Nike, several of which were detailed in the complaint.

The charges are so far unproven, of course, and Avenatti deserves the presumption of innocence he would have denied now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump and  others who crossed his path.

But Avenatti should have been banished from public life months, if not years ago.

His latest legal problems might be a just reward for the unmitigated misery he inflicted on President Trump, Justice Kavanaugh and all who support them over the past two years.

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This was yesterday. Good grief. https://t.co/vQjTtOYhy9

Anger: Here’s Adam Schiff raging that Attorney General Barr is now the problem: 

 

Mueller spent two years investigating obstruction of justice and found evidence that “does not exonerate” Trump. Barr took two days to set aside that evidence.

The entire report must be published and evidence provided to Congress so the American people can judge for themselves.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 24, 2019

 

Bargaining: Minute parsing from assorted leftists.

 

This is what you call: “The very best i can come up with”. https://t.co/QUHgjbyT8y

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) March 25, 2019

CNN’s on-screen graphic keeps highlighting that Mueller “does not exonerate” Trump of obstruction. The report ACTUALLY says the matter was too complicated, deferred to heads of DOJ– It was THEM who exonerated Trump by declining to pursue obstruction charges.

— Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) March 24, 2019

Acceptance: NeverTrumper Bret Baier is trying to make the best of it:

“No matter your ideologies or your loyalties, this is a good day for America. No American conspired to cooperate with Russia in its efforts to interfere with the 2016 election, according to Robert Mueller, and that is good.”  @BretBaier  @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2019

 

The reality for them is that they’re discredited as Trump is exonerated. There was never any Russian collusion. The Mueller report says so. I knew that even before the report was written. Trump spoke of wanting to get along with the Russians and plenty of us agreed with him – it was never anything more than that, but the fevered imaginations of Trump’s opponents – whether in the deep state, in smear-outfits on the outside, in the leftist mainstream press, or above all, in sneaky imagination of Mook –  it was always true – solely because they wanted it to be. Their tactic was to just repeat the lie until it became the truth.  

Didn’t work. They’re howling now, and it’s going to be a lot worse for them than just blown credibility.

To start, their failed assault on Trump is actually bolstering the man. As the old saying goes, when you strike the king, you must kill the king. They’re learning the hard way the other old saying: That which does not kill Trump makes him stronger. Get a load of what’s coming down the pike in the electorally critical Midwest:

Thursday’s Trump rally in Grand Rapids is going to be insane. I fully expect to hear thousands of people sing-songing “NO-coll-U-sion” (like “Let’s go Yankees!”), complete with the 5 claps afterward.

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) March 25, 2019

 

A strengthened Trump is what they bought themselves with that $25 million Special Counsel investigation, premised on their own partisan lie.

And a strengthened Trump means a weakened left.

We are seeing calls for Schiff’s resignation in the wake of his consistent spreading of lies – the Mueller report would merit that, given that Schiff is now utterly discredited.

 

Sleazy Adam Schiff and slimy Eric Swalwell should IMMEDIATELY resign. They’ve disgraced themselves, the US Congress, their colleagues, their Party, and anyone claiming them. No serious person should ever include their opinions in any serious conversation from this point on.

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) March 24, 2019

 

We are also seeing an invigorated right, which isn’t laying on its laurels after this victory, but calling for the real colluders to be exposed – and punished. The right is learning to use political power the way Trump does, not the way George Bush did, fighting Democrats the way they fight us – on the terms they set - signalling that this isn’t the end of the matter.

 

Sorry, Rev. We are never “working together” with these treacherous scum again. They drew first blood for no other reason than their besotted “queen” didn’t get “her turn.” We won’t stop til every single one of them is behind bars. Every. Single. One. https://t.co/7I2QPVw8oO

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 25, 2019

 

We are also seeing vindication for one of the Republicans Democrats hate and fear most – one of the few they couldn’t ballot-harvest out of Congress – and one whose dedication to the truth will raise his stature further:

 

There are a lot of quiet heroes over the last two years.

Chief among them is @DevinNunes who took blistering fire from the Left and still kept going – keeping multiple investigations alive while in pursuit of the truth.

Thank you sir for your tireless work and honesty.

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) March 24, 2019

 

Lastly, what’s next for the Democrats is that they’ve lost a key tool for invigorating their base – the prospect of impeaching Trump, which is what they are counting on to goose up Democratic turnout. No collusion, no impeachment. They’ve just dropped their spear in the toilet with this Mueller report.

Unable to use the Mueller report as a tool, the only thing they will have left is promoting socialism, which is their undifferentiated platform, no matter who their candidate is. Socialism has been found to be the biggest turnoff to voters according to a recent poll.

Good luck on that one, jackasses.

 

Image credit: Face the Nation, via YouTube, screen grab

 

 

In the age of Trump, the left and its NeverTrump enablers are in a bad way. The release of Mueller report was a bombshell to them, discrediting everything they’ve been arguing and now they’re shellshocked. Suddenly, their pacifier-narrative, the one cooked up by Robbie Mook less than 24 hours after Hillary Clinton threw in the towel after losing the presidency to Donald Trump as a consolation is all gone, flushed away by their great white hope, Robert Mueller. They’re devastated. Their initial responses to that blown narrative actually show the various stages of grief. Here are some choice tweets: 

Denial: Start with Beto O’Rourke sticking to the same old stale story:

Anger: Here’s Adam Schiff raging that Attorney General Barr is now the problem: 

 

Mueller spent two years investigating obstruction of justice and found evidence that “does not exonerate” Trump. Barr took two days to set aside that evidence.

The entire report must be published and evidence provided to Congress so the American people can judge for themselves.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 24, 2019

 

Bargaining: Minute parsing from assorted leftists.

 

This is what you call: “The very best i can come up with”. https://t.co/QUHgjbyT8y

— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) March 25, 2019

CNN’s on-screen graphic keeps highlighting that Mueller “does not exonerate” Trump of obstruction. The report ACTUALLY says the matter was too complicated, deferred to heads of DOJ– It was THEM who exonerated Trump by declining to pursue obstruction charges.

— Eddie Scarry (@eScarry) March 24, 2019

Acceptance: NeverTrumper Bret Baier is trying to make the best of it:

“No matter your ideologies or your loyalties, this is a good day for America. No American conspired to cooperate with Russia in its efforts to interfere with the 2016 election, according to Robert Mueller, and that is good.”  @BretBaier  @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2019

 

The reality for them is that they’re discredited as Trump is exonerated. There was never any Russian collusion. The Mueller report says so. I knew that even before the report was written. Trump spoke of wanting to get along with the Russians and plenty of us agreed with him – it was never anything more than that, but the fevered imaginations of Trump’s opponents – whether in the deep state, in smear-outfits on the outside, in the leftist mainstream press, or above all, in sneaky imagination of Mook –  it was always true – solely because they wanted it to be. Their tactic was to just repeat the lie until it became the truth.  

Didn’t work. They’re howling now, and it’s going to be a lot worse for them than just blown credibility.

To start, their failed assault on Trump is actually bolstering the man. As the old saying goes, when you strike the king, you must kill the king. They’re learning the hard way the other old saying: That which does not kill Trump makes him stronger. Get a load of what’s coming down the pike in the electorally critical Midwest:

Thursday’s Trump rally in Grand Rapids is going to be insane. I fully expect to hear thousands of people sing-songing “NO-coll-U-sion” (like “Let’s go Yankees!”), complete with the 5 claps afterward.

— David Martosko (@dmartosko) March 25, 2019

 

A strengthened Trump is what they bought themselves with that $25 million Special Counsel investigation, premised on their own partisan lie.

And a strengthened Trump means a weakened left.

We are seeing calls for Schiff’s resignation in the wake of his consistent spreading of lies – the Mueller report would merit that, given that Schiff is now utterly discredited.

 

Sleazy Adam Schiff and slimy Eric Swalwell should IMMEDIATELY resign. They’ve disgraced themselves, the US Congress, their colleagues, their Party, and anyone claiming them. No serious person should ever include their opinions in any serious conversation from this point on.

— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) March 24, 2019

 

We are also seeing an invigorated right, which isn’t laying on its laurels after this victory, but calling for the real colluders to be exposed – and punished. The right is learning to use political power the way Trump does, not the way George Bush did, fighting Democrats the way they fight us – on the terms they set - signalling that this isn’t the end of the matter.

 

Sorry, Rev. We are never “working together” with these treacherous scum again. They drew first blood for no other reason than their besotted “queen” didn’t get “her turn.” We won’t stop til every single one of them is behind bars. Every. Single. One. https://t.co/7I2QPVw8oO

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 25, 2019

 

We are also seeing vindication for one of the Republicans Democrats hate and fear most – one of the few they couldn’t ballot-harvest out of Congress – and one whose dedication to the truth will raise his stature further:

 

There are a lot of quiet heroes over the last two years.

Chief among them is @DevinNunes who took blistering fire from the Left and still kept going – keeping multiple investigations alive while in pursuit of the truth.

Thank you sir for your tireless work and honesty.

— Jeff Carlson (@themarketswork) March 24, 2019

 

Lastly, what’s next for the Democrats is that they’ve lost a key tool for invigorating their base – the prospect of impeaching Trump, which is what they are counting on to goose up Democratic turnout. No collusion, no impeachment. They’ve just dropped their spear in the toilet with this Mueller report.

Unable to use the Mueller report as a tool, the only thing they will have left is promoting socialism, which is their undifferentiated platform, no matter who their candidate is. Socialism has been found to be the biggest turnoff to voters according to a recent poll.

Good luck on that one, jackasses.

 

Image credit: Face the Nation, via YouTube, screen grab