Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen stands behind Trump.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump sued his onetime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen on Wednesday, in search of no less than $500 million for alleged breaches of contract and “unjust enrichment.”
The civil suit, filed in federal court in Miami, accused Cohen of “spreading falsehoods” about Trump, violating his attorney-client relationship and breaching a confidentiality agreement he had signed with the Trump Organization.
The allegations against Cohen, whose once-close relationship with Trump imploded in 2018, come because the disbarred lawyer has turn into a key witness against the previous president in a criminal case in Manhattan.
Trump, the primary ex-president to face criminal charges, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to 34 counts of falsifying business records in that case. It centers on hush money payments made before the 2016 presidential election, which Cohen facilitated for Trump.
The famously litigious former president has previously been accused of using the courts as a cudgel against his adversaries.
Alejandro Brito, Trump’s attorney within the case, referred CNBC’s questions on the timing of the brand new lawsuit against Cohen to a spokesman for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. The spokesman said in a press release that the lawsuit and Cohen’s alleged wrongdoings “stand for themselves.”
The criticism alleged Cohen’s fiduciary obligations owed to Trump “survive the attorney-client relationship and Defendant’s disbarment and are still in effect today.”
Cohen’s “most egregious breaches of fiduciary duty and contract” got here in reference to the tell-all books he published in 2020 and 2022, in addition to claims made on his podcast, “Mea Culpa,” the lawsuit alleged.
“Mr. Trump appears once more to be using and abusing the judicial system as a type of harassment and intimidation against Michael Cohen,” Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, said in a press release.
Davis said the “frivolous” lawsuit suggests Trump is “terrified by his looming legal perils and is attempting to send a message to other potential witnesses who’re cooperating with prosecutors against him.”
