We interrupt our regularly scheduled programs – Bloomberg versus Bernie, the Justice Department crisis, and the latest book about Trump’s scummy money – to bring you a news bulletin from federal court. You may have missed it the other day, perhaps because, in the grand scheme of things, it barely rates a glance.
Nevertheless, we should note that Michael Avenatti, the porn star lawyer and erstwhile hero of cable studios coast to coast, was convicted Friday on all three counts of wire fraud and attempted extortion. He was returned to jail, where he had lived during the trial, and there he will stay. This spring, he will go on trial in a different federal criminal case, in which he is charged (among other things) with stealing millions of bucks from clients, and lying about his business and income to the IRS and a bankruptcy court.
Which makes me smile.
Avenatti’s downfall should be a lesson to the broadcast media, if it cares to learn it. In the future, it would wise to vet in advance the people who are awarded saturation coverage. Two years ago, Avenatti was deemed to be a “great story,” based solely on his representation of Stormy Daniels, a story too hot to check out. He enjoyed a meteoric ascent via Colbert and Klepper and Cooper and and Megyn and Maher (who told Avenatti, “Everyone is in love with you”). The folks watching at home came to believe they “knew” Avenatti, in the illusory way that celebrities famous for being famous are deemed to be knowable.
I wrote that latter sentence in August ’18, in a snarky piece that questioned Avenatti’s credentials to be President of the United States. Remember that bizarre boomlet? There actually was hype about Avenatti grasping for the brass ring – hype that Avenatti happily stoked, touting himself, in a summer CNN interview, as having the requisite “brains, heart, and courage” to run the nation. He made trips to Iowa and New Hampshire. He launched a political action committee. And thanks to his lawyering for Stormy, he amassed three quarters of a million worshipful fans on Twitter.
One of my favorite ’18 moments was a CNN segment hosted by Brian Stelter, who covers the media. In a classic hall-of-mirrors moment, he said to Avenatti: “Looking ahead to 2020, one reason I’m taking you seriously as a (presidential) contender is because of your presence on cable news” – neglecting to mention that Avenatti’s ubiquitous presence on cable news was because they kept booking him.
But as I wrote that summer, “What the heck is happening here?” There was plenty of evidence on the public ledger that Avenatti was a grifter. His law firm had gone bankrupt. He owed $10 million in unpaid debts and back taxes. He owed one of his firm’s litigators $4.85 million, then failed to make the first payment; when that happened, a U.S. bankruptcy judge slapped a $10 million judgment on Avenatti’s law firm.
Those facts, and many more, were all deemed inconvenient; the broadcast media loved his slick sound bites and leonine looks, and Democrats loved the Stormy sex story. Plus, Democrats were pining for a fighter who could go toe to toe with Trump (sound familiar?) and Avenatti was saying all the right things: “We cannot be the party of turning the other cheek.”
So I was out of step with the summer ’18 zeitgeist when I dismissed Avenatti as a “pseudo-event” who was buffing a fighter image “one green room at a time.” Avenatti saw the piece, tweeted at me that I was “entirely unfair and misguided” – and for the next four hours, hundreds of his Twitter fans descended with all the ferocity of the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.
For me, it was an entertaining reminder that liberals can be trolls, too. A small random sample:
“Polman, you fell on your ass. Michael Avenatti is trusted by more citizens than any other ‘leader’.”
“Today we learned that Dick is a poor writer and disingenuous human.”
“You’re unexpectedly snarky. Many liberals are intrigued by Avenatti’s directness and intelligence.”
“Wow, another hit job by the elite establishment.”
“Vicious and false. Earnest hard work has already earned Mr. Avenatti world fame.”
“Did you do any background research? Avenatti is more than qualified. He uniquely able to read & connect to current liberals.”
And inevitably: “Being named ‘Dick Polman’ and not making it in the Porn biz probably created some weird complex for this guy.”
But this guy was smiling when Avenatti was convicted last Friday. Federal prosecutors argued – and the jury agreed – that Avenatti had tried to engineer “an old fashioned shakedown.” He had information that some employees of Nike may have engaged in sketchy behavior while they were recruiting college basketball players. He went to Nike and requested $22.5 million in exchange for his silence. Hence his court conviction – which was applauded by none other than Stormy Daniels, who said on Instagram that “his dishonesty has been revealed on a grand scale.” Did I neglect to mention that Avenatti has also been charged with stealing almost $300,000 from Stormy, to help make payments on his Ferrari?
His Twitter fans are silent now. So are most of the media hosts who fawned and flattered – with one notable exception. On CNN two days ago, Brian Stetler recalled his indulgence of Avenatti and wondered, “Was that stupid on my part?” He soon answered his own question: “When we talk about media manipulation, whether it’s Trump or Avenatti or anyone else, the point is to be more skeptical of the manipulation that’s going on.”
Ya think? But why do I suspect that lesson will never be learned?