On Wednesday, Donald Trump sued his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen for at least $500 million in damages, as the former US president escalated his attacks on his onetime loyal “fixer” after Cohen testified before the Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump.
Trump accused Cohen in a complaint filed in federal court in Miami of failing to keep confidential attorney-client communications private and profiting from “spreading falsehoods” about him in books and podcasts.
Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, called Trump’s lawsuit “frivolous.” Trump has frequently filed lawsuits against various adversaries over the years.
“Mr. Trump is once again using and abusing the legal system to harass and intimidate Michael Cohen,” Davis said.
The lawsuit comes as Cohen, who once said he would “do anything” to protect Trump, appears set to become a star witness against him in a potential criminal trial in New York based on the charges unsealed last week. Trump, a Republican presidential candidate in 2024, pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records. It was the first time a former president of the United States had been charged with a crime.
Prosecutors led by Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg allege that Trump failed to reimburse Cohen for $130,000 in hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, who claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Trump denies any such relationship existed.
According to Trump’s lawsuit, Cohen incorrectly called Trump a “racist” in his disbarred lawyer’s 2020 book, “Disloyal,” and fabricated conversations with Trump from when he was his attorney.
“The timing of Disloyal’s release, just prior to November 3, 2020, Presidential Election, suggests that (Cohen) intended to improperly disclose (Trump’s) confidences when it would be most profitable to do so – and when Disloyal would be certain to have the most damaging reputational effect,” according to the lawsuit.
Trump was defeated in the election by Democrat Joe Biden.
‘I AM ASHAMED’
Cohen worked as a top executive at Trump’s real estate company before becoming his personal lawyer when Trump was elected president in 2017. Cohen, who was once known for his fierce loyalty to Trump, has become a harsh critic and has assisted law enforcement and lawmakers in their investigations into his former boss.
“I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is,” Cohen told a congressional committee in the United States in 2019. “He’s a bigot. He is a liar. He is a liar.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to violating federal election law by making the $130,000 payment to Daniels. He was sentenced to three years in prison for this and other crimes, including lying to Congress about when the Trump Organization stopped working on a proposed building project in Russia.
Trump’s lawyers said Trump intended the payment to Daniels, also known as Stephanie Clifford, “to protect his family from the malicious and false claims made by Clifford.”
The criminal case is one of several legal issues Trump is dealing with, including investigations into his failed 2020 election bid and his removal of government documents from the White House after leaving office.
Last year, New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump and his three adult children for fraud, accusing them of undervaluing real estate properties in order to obtain favorable loans and tax breaks. Following the filing of that case, Trump also sued James.
Trump said last week that Cohen had failed to appear for a deposition conducted by Trump’s legal team as part of that lawsuit, which is set to go to trial on Oct. 2. Justice Arthur Engoron has scheduled a hearing for April 21 to determine whether to compel Cohen to testify.
Trump filed a lawsuit against James in an attempt to stop her civil case, but the judge dismissed it, writing that there was “no evidence” that the investigation was conducted in bad faith.
In another case, a judge ordered Trump and his attorneys to pay nearly $1 million in January for filing a “completely frivolous” lawsuit accusing Hillary Clinton and other Democrats of attempting to rig the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
