Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump, eviscerated embattled television lawyer Michael Avenatti following his arrest Monday for allegedly attempting to extort Nike, embezzling his clients’ money, and bank fraud.
Trump Jr. and Avenatti, a frequent critic of the president and the former lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, have a history together. Avenatti, like many of his “resistance” peers, had long predicted that Trump Jr. would be indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia by the end of 2018.
Last Friday, a senior Department of Justice official said that Mueller would not bring any further indictments as part of his probe, effectively ending Avenatti’s brief career as a political oracle.
Trump Jr. is milking his feud with Avenatti, firing off a series of searing tweets mocking the lawyer’s legal woes. In one quip, Trump Jr. borrowed the acronym of his father’s famous campaign slogan: “#MAGA – Michael Avenatti Getting Arrested!!!”
In another tweet, Trump Jr. joked: “Good news for my friend @MichaelAvenatti, if you plead fast enough, you might just get to share a cell with Michael Cohen!”
Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of President Trump, was sentenced last December to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging payments during the 2016 election to silence women who claimed affairs with the president before he was in office. One of the women was Daniels. Trump Jr. also took aim at celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos, who according to the Wall Street Journal, is the unnamed co-conspirator in the complaint against Avenatti.
Read Trump Jr.’s tweets below:
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1110227239101235202
Federal authorities in Manhattan arrested Avenatti for allegedly attempting to extort up to $25 million from Nike, the Justice Department announced Monday. He also faces separate federal charges in Los Angeles for allegedly embezzling a client’s money and defrauding a bank using phony tax return documents to obtain millions in loans.
In the New York-based criminal complaint, prosecutors said Avenatti threatened to release damaging information about Nike if the company didn’t pay $1.5 million to a client who had the information. He also said Nike must retain him and another person for between $15 million and $25 million to conduct an internal investigation.
The criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles accused Avenatti of negotiating a settlement for $1.6 million to be paid Jan. 10, 2018, but giving his client a phony settlement with a payment date of March 10, 2018. Avenatti then allegedly used his client’s funds to pay his own bills for a coffee business that operated in California and Washington.
UPI contributed to this report.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.