Michael Avenatti’s 15 minutes of fame did not extend to the game show “Jeopardy!”
On the show’s “tournament of champions” airing Thursday night, none of the well-versed contestants could think of Mr. Avenatti’s name when host Alex Trebek read the following clue:
“This lawyer’s star rose while repping Stormy Daniels but fell after he was accused of trying to extort millions from Nike in 2019.”
The contestants stood mute as their time ran out.
Mr. Trebek observed, “His name — quickly forgotten, obviously — Michael Avenatti.”
Mr. Avenatti said in a tweet earlier Wednesday that he expects to be “fully exonerated” after federal prosecutors filed a new indictment against him in federal court in Manhattan charging him with a single additional count of honest services fraud. He is no longer facing conspiracy charges in his alleged attempt to extort Nike out of millions of dollars.
“I am extremely pleased that the two counts alleging I engaged in a conspiracy against Nike have just been dismissed by Trump’s DOJ. I expect to be fully exonerated when it is all said and done,” Mr. Avenatti tweeted.
Prosecutors allege that Mr. Avenatti tried to blackmail Nike by threatening to expose its wrongful dealings in college sports.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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