Jury convicts Michael Avenatti in Nike extortion trial
Stormy Daniels' ex-lawyer Michael Avenatti found guilty on all three counts in Nike extortion trial; David Lee Miller reports.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., was apparently in no mood to take the high road Friday after celebrity attorney Michael Avenatti was convicted by a federal jury of trying to extort sportswear giant Nike.
The senator's office put out a statement following the verdict that referred to Avenatti as a "noted scumbag" and "left-wing media darling who orchestrated attacks on Justice Brett Kavanaugh."
"Michael Avenatti is a D-list attorney but a Grade-A scumbag," Sasse began. "It’s hard to get airtime from the slammer, so Nike’s win is cable television’s loss. In the end, Michael Avenatti wasn’t a real attorney, he just played one on TV."
FLASHBACK: AVENATTI RELEASES GRAPHIC KAVANAUGH ALLEGATIONS
Avenatti became incensed in 2018 after Sasse jabbed at him during a Senate floor speech in which the senator discussed the pain and trouble the contentious confirmation process had brought to the families of both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who accused the then-D.C. federal court judge of attempted sexual assault while they were in high school.
"Two families: the Ford family and the Kavanaugh family, both of them homes with children, have been the recipients of constant death threats, and for what? For one seat on the Supreme Court? We know this isn't about that when people are threatening death. This is about tribe," Sasse -- who voted to confirm Kavanaugh -- said at the time.
Referencing Avenatti's representation of subsequent accuser Julie Swetnick -- who had claimed Kavanaugh was "present" during alleged "gang" rapes at high school parties -- Sasse said on the Senate floor that the American "body politic" will not improve "by giving more oxygen to the one-man clown show that is Michael Avenatti."
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Avenatti responded to the critique by calling Sasse a "one man moron who knows nothing about the law or the [Supreme Court]."
The statement from Sasse's office concluded by noting that Avenatti "faces up to 42 years in prison for his genius legal theories."
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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