| After 1st Day of Nike Trial US Urges
Admission of Text Telling Avenatti Not To Go
Public
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Thread
BBC
- Decrypt
- LightRead - Honduras
-
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 30 – When after
three days of jury selection
the trial of Michael Avenatti
for allegedly extorting Nike
began on January 29, Assistant
US Attorney Robert Sobelman
told the selected jurors that
Avenatti was supposed to look
out for the interests of his
client, but he did not.
Avenatti
had a very modern weapon,
Sobelman said: social
media. Inner
City Press
live-tweeted
the
proceedings, here,
and will have
more. More
on Patreon here.
Avenatti's
lawyer Howard Srebnick in his
longer opening followed up on
that theme, even emphasizing
that Avenatti has, or had,
800,000 followers on Twitter
and could take on a titan like
Nike. He mentioned Stormy
Daniel but as ruled on by
Judge Paul G. Gardephe before
trial, did not name Colin
Kaepernick.
Overnight, AUSA Daniel
Richenthal wrote to Judge
Gardephe objecting to portions
of Howard Srebnick's opening
statement and arguing it
opened the door to entry into
evidence of two text messages
from Auerbach to Avenatti:
"The Government
respectfully writes with two
requests in light of the
defendant’s opening statement
this afternoon. First,
the Government requests that
the Court preclude the
defendant from describing or
making arguments based on the
content of text messages
between Jeffrey Auerbach and
Gary Franklin, Sr., not seen
by the defendant, unless (i) a
witness testifies in a manner
that is materially
inconsistent with those
messages, and (ii) the Court
determines that a specific
message may offered as a prior
inconsistent statement.
Second, the Government
requests that the Court rule
that the defendant has opened
the door to the admission of
two text messages sent by Mr.
Auerbach to the defendant."
In the
first of these March 25, 2019
messages, "Mr. Auerbach, in
response to a Twitter post of
the defendant prior to his
arrest... stated that
the post was 'very upsetting'
and that the defendant should
“call me before going public
in any way."
One might
expect Judge Gardephe to
address this on January 30, as
well as it seems hearing from
a Nike lawyer. Filing and more
on Patreon here.
Watch this site.
On
January 29 the first witness
was Scott Wilson who was a
lawyer with Boies Schiller in
March 2019 when Mark Geragos
came calling saying Avenatti
wanted a meeting directly with
Nike.
After some back and forth
about meeting at Hudson Yards
or Geragos' office on Fifth
Avenue, the meeting was held.
Wilson said Avenatti began by
saying he had evidence of Nike
paying the number one draft
pick in the last NBA
draft.
Wilson quoted
himself asking Avenatti, Are
who was that?
Assistant US Attorney Matthew
Podolsky asked Wilson why he
asked.
To throw
Avenatti off, Wilson said. But
apparently it didn't. Avenatti
said Deandre Ayton and got
back to the demands. Ulimately
the FBI was called in to
secretly record Avenatti. And
the US Attorney's office never
went after Nike, after jailing
Adidas' Jim Gatto.
There's been
discussion of subpoenas from
the SEC, but as captioned "In
Re Athletic Apparel"
companies. Inner City Press
live-tweeted the proceedings,
here,
and will have more. More
on Patreon here. The
case is US v. Avenatti,
19-cr-373 (Gardephe).
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2020 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
