Celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti’s usually active Twitter account went quiet for hours after he was arrested Monday. Now he is back, posting a 3 a.m. message denying his guilt.
“I want to thank all of my supporters for your kind words and support today. It means a lot to me. I am anxious for people to see what really happened. We never attempted to extort Nike & when the evidence is disclosed, the public will learn the truth about Nike’s crime & coverup,” Avenatti tweeted at 3:06 a.m. Tuesday.
I want to thank all of my supporters for your kind words and support today. It means a lot to me. I am anxious for people to see what really happened. We never attempted to extort Nike & when the evidence is disclosed, the public will learn the truth about Nike’s crime & coverup.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) March 26, 2019
Avenatti, 48, appeared in Manhattan federal court Monday after being charged for allegedly attempting to extort millions from Nike. The Wall Street Journal reported his unnamed co-conspirator in the case is former CNN legal analyst Mark Geragos, who was not charged in the complaint. Avenatti also was charged with bank and wire fraud in a separate federal case out of Los Angeles.
Just before to his arrest, he sent a tweet that said he would be holding a press conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday to disclose “a major high school/college basketball scandal.” Avenatti confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the press conference has been postponed to later this week.
Avenatti allegedly met with Nike lawyers and demanded to be paid between $15 million and $22.5 million to keep him and Geragos on retainer, raising accusations that the company paid college recruits to commit to certain schools that Nike sponsored. Avenatti added that the company could just pay $22.5 million in hush money to keep them quiet if Nike didn’t want to put them on retainer.
Nike informed prosecutors about the case, leading to some of the conversations between the company and Avenatti being recorded by law enforcement.
“I’m not fucking around with this, and I’m not continuing to play games,” Avenatti allegedly said on a March 20 phone call. “I’ll go take a billion dollars off your client’s market cap. But I’m not fucking around.”
Avenatti was released on $300,000 bond. He resumed tweeting about Nike at around 8:30 a.m., with one tweet linking to an article from 2017.
“Ask DeAndre Ayton and Nike about the cash payments to his mother and others. Nike’s attempt at diversion and cover-up will fail miserably once prosecutors realize they have been played by Nike and their lawyers at Boies. This reaches the highest levels of Nike,” Avenatti said. “Contrary to Nike’s claims yesterday, they have NOT been cooperating with investigators for over a year. Unless you count lying in response to subpoenas and withholding documents as ‘cooperating.’ They are trying to divert attention from their own crimes.”
Geragos, who was fired by CNN shortly after reports surfaced that he was involved, has yet to make a public statement on the matter.
Joseph Simonson contributed to this report
