Something seemed to be oddly missing in the CNN report by Kara Scannell on Thursday, "Michael Avenatti sentenced to 4 years for stealing nearly $300K from Stormy Daniels."
Here is some of the report which revealed just what a sleazebag lawyer Michael Avenatti was. Now CNN calls him "disgraced":
Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing nearly $300,000 from his former client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
District Judge Jesse Furman said Avenatti's conduct was "so brazen and egregious" adding, he "took advantage of a vulnerable victim given her unorthodox career and somewhat unorthodox beliefs."
Avenatti was convicted in February of one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He faced as much as 20 years on the wire fraud charge and a mandatory two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
Avenatti is currently serving a 30-month prison sentence for attempting to extort over $20 million from Nike by threatening to go public with damaging information unless they paid him. He goes on trial next month in California on charges alleging that he embezzled $10 million in settlement funds from at least five clients. He has also been charged with tax fraud and bankruptcy fraud and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Conveniently missing from the report is just how much CNN and other cable outlets such as MSNBC were in bed with Avenatti by hyping him as perhaps no other guest in the history of television. In fact, during a one year period, Avenatti made a grand total of 254 appearances, with CNN leading the pack at 122 guest spots.
The hosts continually fawned over him to the extent that they shoved renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz out the door. So why would CNN ditch the highly respected Dershowitz for Avenatti? Dershowitz himself gave the best explanation:
...They didn't want my kind of analysis. They had a choice. They had a choice of a Harvard law professor for 50 years who has been getting it right who is a centrist liberal and who has credibility or Michael Avenatti. And they picked Michael Avenatti. One night I got a call from CNN saying we have to cancel you. We have Michael Avenatti, he is coming on tonight. He became their go-to guy. Every one of his predictions turned out to be false....
He promised us that Trump would be out of office soon and that his lawsuit would be the downfall of Trump. And all of that, he was proved wrong on every occasion. I really think the networks have to be held accountable for their predictions. I would love to see on your show or other shows just systematically, showing with what the pundits on the networks predicted and how they came true or not true so we can evaluate the credibility of various pundit.
It is hard to exaggerate just how much CNN was in awe of the corrupt lawyer they were promoting but this clip of "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter reveals that CNN's adoration Avenatti extended even to the point of suggesting he should be taken seriously as a contender for president in 2020 because of his "presence on cable news."
