Everyone has heard the adage: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.
But not everyone has heard the reverse of that adage: “Old dogs can still do old tricks”.
Well, it looks like Clare Bronfman AKA the Faux Fainter is back to her old tricks – at least as far as her dealings with Frank Parlato are concerned.
According to a letter that was filed last week by her court-appointed Curcio attorney, Donna S. Newman, one of the primary reasons that Bronfman hired Michael Avenatti was to serve “as a consultant…in a civil matter pending in the Western District of New York”.
The only known civil matter involving Bronfman in the Western District of New York is the Bronfman v. Parlato case that is pending in the New York Supreme Court in Niagara County.
In conjunction with that lawsuit, Clare and her sister, Sara, are seeking to force Frank to return the $1 million they originally advanced to him as a partial- payment of the fee he was going to earn as the Project Manager for their Los Angeles real estate project.
Frank, in turn, is seeking payment of the total $7.5 million of fees that he would have earned had they not breached the contract fired him from that role – after he recovered $26 million in assets for them – and replaced him with Jim Del Negro.
In a painfully obvious attempt at some serious ass-covering, Newman explained in her letter to Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis that “the exact terms of what [Avenatti’s] role might be in the civil matter were not formalized and were not settled, to Ms. Bronfman’s knowledge”.
Huh?
Clare Bronfman – the person who retained Avenatti to help out on her case with Frank – doesn’t know whether Avenatti ‘s role on the case was agreed upon and settled?
Well, then who the hell does?
Given Avenatti’s past performance as Stormy Daniels’ attorney – and his recent attempt to extort more than $20 million from Nike – I think we can deduce exactly what he was hired to do with respect to Frank.
Avenatti was hired to cajole, harass, intimidate, threaten, and, if/as necessary, extort Frank until Frank agreed to stop writing nasty stories about Clare.
So, Clare is still employing the same basic tactics that she used throughout the time that she served as Director of Operations for NXIVM/ESP: hire the sleaziest, most unethical lawyers you can find – and pay them exorbitant amounts of money to punish anyone you consider to be an enemy.
Avenatti was just going to be the latest in a long line of attorneys who have opted for huge fees over ethics when it comes to representing Clare Bronfman and the NXIVM/ESP cult.
But Avenatti got kicked to the sidelines when the attorneys representing Nike decided to call in the feds rather than give in to his extortionist demands.
Without intending to do so, Nike’s attorneys did Frank a huge favor by exposing Avenatti’s thug-like tactics.
Otherwise, there’s no telling what he would have done to shut down the Frank Report.
Frank tells me he would have been happy to have Avenatti oppose him in the lawsuit for it would certainly bring enormous publicity to the Frank Report.
*****
In last week’s Curcio hearing, Judge Garaufis did not bother pursuing some of the more obvious bullshit that was contained in the letter he received from Newman.
In addition to Clare not knowing whether the terms of Avenatti’s role in the civil matter involving Frank were ever finalized, she also didn’t know whether he was going to be part of the legal team representing her at her upcoming criminal trial.
As explained by Newman, “To Ms. Bronfman’s knowledge, it was not contemplated that Mr. Avenatti would represent Ms. Bronfman before the Court in any proceedings in the Eastern District of New York”.
Once again, if Clare doesn’t know whether he was going to be representing her, then who the hell does?
*****
Judge Garaufis got exactly what he needed, however, at last week’s hearing: i.e., Clare stated on the record that even though she is aware of the fact that Mark Geragos may be under investigation by the Southern District of New York and the FBI – and even though those investigations could lead to Geragos being indicted – she still wants him to be her lead attorney.
One more potential appeal issue off the table.
*****
Given the fact that Geragos has now admitted to being involved with Avenatti in two very sleazy undertakings – trying to extort more than $20 million from Nike and trying to use some unnamed party’s information about another criminal matter to get a better plea deal for Clare – the odds of him being indicted have risen sharply.
Adding to those odds is this cryptic order that was issued by Judge Garaufis after last Thursday’s Curcio hearing: “The Government may share the contents of its March 26, 2019 sealed letter [to the Court] with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Otherwise, the letter remains under seal until further order of this court”.
What effect, if any, such an indictment will have in terms of Clare’s criminal trial moving forward is hard to say at this time. Based on our initial research, it appears that an indicted attorney can still represent others in court proceedings.
But whether – or when – Geragos gets indicted may not be all that important. Given the fact that Clare is already involved in plea deal negotiations strongly suggests that she may decide not to roll the dice and go to trial.
Maybe at the end of the day, it will be just Raniere sitting at the defense table with Marc Agnifilo when the trial in the matter of the U.S. v. Raniere actually starts.
As the Vanguard liked to remind his followers: “He who has the most joy wins”.
And what can be more joyful than being involved in a trial that could result in a life sentence for your criminal acts – and not having even one member of your inner circle by your side?
Viva Executive Success!
