Supreme Court refuses to free Stormy Daniels' ex-lawyer on day Trump trial closings start

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Stormy Daniels' former lawyer Michael Avenatti of his conviction for attempting to extort Nike.

The court left in place Avenatti’s extortion and fraud convictions for pressuring the sportswear company to pay his client, a youth basketball coach who claimed the company made unlawful payments to high school athletes, and hire him and another lawyer to investigate the matter, reported NBC News.

Avenatti then threatened to go public with the allegations if Nike did not agree to his terms, prosecutors say.

A jury convicted him on two extortion-related counts and one charge of fraud under a federal law against illegal kickbacks, and an appeals court upheld the convictions.

The brief order announcing the decision noted that justice Brett Kavanaugh did not participate in the decision, and while the court did not explain his absence, Avenatti represented several women during his confirmation hearings who accused him of sexual misconduct decades ago.

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Avenatti was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for the extortion plot, and he has also been sentenced to 14 years in prison for cheating clients out of millions of dollars and to four years in prison for stealing money from Daniels.

He's currently incarcerated at a federal prison in California and is not scheduled for release until August 2035.