Prosecutors say that short-lived presidential candidate and “Creepy Porn Lawyer” Michael Avenatti was over $15 million in debt when he tried to extort up to $25 million from Nike, according to Breitbart News.
Federal prosecutors said they plan to show the jury that Avenatti owed “conservatively, in excess of $15 million” to former clients, one or more former law partners, both of his former spouses for child and spousal support, and a lawyer identified only as “Attorney-1.”
Prosecutors say the evidence will prove “that he had extraordinary indebtedness, and thus the need and motive to quickly generate substantial sums of money at the time when he engaged in the charged conduct,” prosecutors wrote.
Criminal charges against Avenatti, who is facing the first of three scheduled trials, include allegations that he defrauded his porn star client Stormy Daniels out of book deal proceeds and other clients out of millions of dollars. He denies all charges and has asserted that his motives were “benign or even altruistic.”