The United States Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that it will not hear an appeal from disgraced former lawyer Michael Avenatti, ending his hopes of overturning three separate federal convictions against him. Avenatti, the infamous “creepy porn lawyer” who first gained notoriety while representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against former President Donald Trump, is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for attempting to extort up to $25 million from Nike.
In 2019, Avenatti began representing youth basketball coach Gary Franklin, who was litigating against Nike for allegedly paying college players under the table. Avenatti and fellow lawyer Mark Geragos (who once represented late pop singer Michael Jackson) demanded that Nike hire them “to conduct an internal investigation into corruption in basketball,” or else they would call a press conference to “blow the lid on this scandal.”
Avenatti said that the sportswear company could either pay him between $15 million and $25 million to investigate or $22 million to keep quiet and further demanded $1.5 million for his client. Geragos, who was not charged in the case, claimed that Avenatti had “crossed a line” with the demands. Franklin would later testify that he never even asked for an investigation, but merely wanted Nike to resume sponsoring his basketball team.
In 2020, Avenatti was convicted on two counts of extortion against Nike and one count of “honest services fraud” against Franklin. Prosecutors alleged that he had used the situation to enrich himself to pay off debts from his struggling law firm and his recent divorce. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years on these charges.
In 2022, Avenatti was sentenced to an additional 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $7 million in restitution for defrauding four former clients out of settlement payments he had negotiated on their behalf.
That same year, he was convicted of stealing $300,000 from a book advance given to Stormy Daniels ahead of the publication of her memoir Full Disclosure, which detailed her alleged affair with former President Trump. For the charges of wire fraud and identity theft, Avenatti was sentenced to another four years.
In August 2023, a lower court rejected Avenatti’s appeal to overturn the Nike verdict despite the defendant’s attempt to argue that the evidence against him had been insufficient. Avenatti’s lawyers also argued that the statutes under which he was convicted were unconstitutionally vague.
On Tuesday, the Justices of the Supreme Court did not provide an explanation for their decision to deny Avenatti’s petition for a writ of certiorari, but the court indicated that Justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in the ruling. Avenatti previously represented a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault during his politically fraught confirmation process in 2018, meaning the justice may have recused himself to avoid a conflict of interest.
The timing of this decision, which came as Trump stands trial in New York City for making hush money payments to Daniels, is entirely coincidental. However, Avenatti had previously offered to testify in that case on behalf of the former president and claimed to have been in contact with the defense.
