Michael Avenatti offered a preview of his defense to charges he tried to shake down Nike for $20 million-plus by saying, “People make threats all the time in connection with trying to settle a case.”

“There’s legal experts that say I was well within the line as an aggressive attorney,” he told CBS News in an interview segment that aired Tuesday night.

“There are many that say that. And the fact of the matter is, this was not extortion.”

In another segment broadcast on Wednesday’s “CBS This Morning,” Avenatti said that “the way this has been framed is not accurate.”

“And in fact, from the first moment that we had any meeting with Nike, we made it clear that under no circumstances would we participate in anything that did not require full disclosure to investigators and the federal government,” he said.

Avenatti’s remarks came after a controversial series of tweets Tuesday in which he alleged that “the highest levels of Nike” were involved in illegal cash payments to amateur basketball players.

Nike has not responded to requests for comment since Monday, when it issued a statement following Avenatti’s arrest.

At the time, the sneaker giant said it “will not be extorted or hide information that is relevant to a government investigation.”

Avenatti also trashed the former client from whom he’s accused in California of stealing a $1.6 million settlement.

“It turns out — and I didn’t know this at the time — that he has an extensive criminal background and rap sheet associated with his conduct,” he said.

“Again, nowhere does that appear in the complaint. There’s going to be a lot of evidence, a lot of facts that are going to come to light.”

When asked for comment, a spokesman for the Los Angeles US Attorney’s Office pointed to a footnote near the beginning of its 197-page complaint against Avenatti.

It says that the client, identified only as “G.B.,” pleaded guilty to felony theft in September and was sentenced to probation.

“During his interview, G.B. said that Avenatti had encouraged him to plead guilty and that Avenatti continued working with G.B. and one of G.B.’s companies after G.B.’s guilty plea,” the document says.

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