Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels and various other celebrity defendants, went on the internet and used Google to research insider trading before meeting with Nike and attempting to extort millions of dollars from the apparel company, according to federal prosecutors.
On Monday in Manhattan, government lawyers told U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe they believe Avenatti’s search history is “evidence of the California attorney’s state of mind during the alleged crime,” according to Bloomberg.
Avenatti, who was representing youth basketball coach Gary Franklin at the time, was charged in March for allegedly demanding Nike shell out as much as $25 million to prevent him from going public with allegations of payments being made by the athletic apparel company to top high school hoops players.
Though what Nike did or did not to will not be on trial, Judge Gardephe has ruled Avenatti may tell the jury about Nike allegedly going to prosecutors with its extortion claim to offer him up “on a silver platter.”
In court filings, Nike has stated Avenatti wants to put the company’s “conduct on trial” because he can’t dodge the evidence against him.
“He intends to misdirect the jury — pointing their attention anywhere but on his own conduct — in the hope that at least one of them will be confused by evidence that is legally irrelevant and factually inaccurate,” Nike said.
In a related story, possible jurors told the court they couldn’t serve during the extortion trial, which could begin as early as this week, because they were too sad due to the death of Kobe Bryant.
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