Lawyer Michael Avenatti was found guilty on all three charges related to his attempts to extort up to $25 million from Nike, according to multiple reports.
A jury in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan found him guilty Friday.
Prior to his arrest, he gained widespread fame for representing Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who said she had an affair with Donald Trump before he was president and was subsequently paid off.
Before he was taken into custody last March, Avenatti tweeted, “Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.”
“The allegations related to Nike arose out of Mr. Avenatti’s representation of a client identified in the complaint as the coach of an amateur men’s basketball program in California, which prosecutors said had a sponsorship agreement with Nike,” the complaint at the time read. Also around that time, Daniels said in a statement that she cut ties with Avenatti more than a month prior, “after discovering that he had dealt with me extremely dishonestly.”
After news of the verdict hit Twitter Friday, Donald Trump Jr. wrote, “I look forward to Michael’s witty twitter retorts to the jury that just found him guilty in all counts. Though I’m told he is still doing well amongst the Democrat primary contenders.”