Michael Avenatti, a presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, is in hot water after being hit with an avalanche of legal, political, financial, and personal troubles, raising questions whether this is the beginning of the end for the firebrand lawyer who gained celebrity status [CNN- MSNBC] thanks to his opposition to President Trump.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley announced on Thursday that Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick, who claimed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh engaged in sexual misconduct, were referred for criminal investigation for an alleged “conspiracy” to provide false statements to Congress.
He was arrested in New York City on charges of trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening to publicize claims that company employees authorized payments to the families of top high school basketball players.
Avenatti also was separately charged in a second federal case in Los Angeles with embezzling a client's money "in order to pay his own expenses and debts" and those of his law firm and coffee company, and of "defrauding a bank in Mississippi," prosecutors said.
The famously aggressive litigator gained widespread notoriety in the past year for representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against President Donald Trump. That was short lived.
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