(Bloomberg) -- U.S. prosecutors ridiculed celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti’s claim that he was charged with trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike Inc. as payback for his feud with President Donald Trump, calling the allegation a “fantastic notion” based on hyperbole and insinuation.
Avenatti asked a judge in August to throw out the case, claiming it was a vindictive prosecution inspired by his high-profile lawsuit against Trump on behalf of pornographic-film actress Stormy Daniels. Government lawyers on Thursday said that dispute had nothing to do with their case.
“There is no vast government scheme, involving multiple people, at multiple agencies, to prosecute the defendant -- an allegedly innocent man -- as a result of a purported ‘feud’ with the executive branch,” prosecutors said in a court filing in Manhattan.
The government says there is overwhelming evidence that Avenatti, while representing a youth basketball coach, tried to force Nike to pay him as much as $25 million to conduct an internal probe at the company and weed out what he says is a vast scheme to corrupt elite youth players.
Avenatti has requested a search of White House emails that he said will prove he was framed in a effort to silence him and remove him as a possible political challenger to Trump.
“I look forward to a jury hearing the real truth as to what happened as opposed to the fairy tale scripted by Trump’s DOJ,” Avenatti said in a text message.
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