In the lawsuit, Trump’s lawyers claim Cohen breached the terms of a confidentiality agreement he agreed to while working for Trump, saying he did so “with malicious intent and to wholly self-serving ends.” | Seth Wenig/AP Photo
Donald Trump is suing his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen just over a week after the former president was arraigned on 34 felony charges related to payments Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump is suing Cohen for more than $500 million in damages, alleging that he violated his attorney-client relationship with Trump by “spreading falsehoods” and revealing confidential information, according to the court filing.
The filing attacks Cohen’s credibility as he is expected to be a key witness in Trump’s impending criminal trial in New York. Going after political or legal adversaries through lawsuits is not a new move for Trump and his legal team, though it is one that has had negative consequences in the past. In January, a Florida-based federal judge ordered nearly $1 million in sanctions against Trump and his attorney Alina Habba for a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton that the judge described as “completely frivolous.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“Today, after giving all those materials to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, out of 321 e-mails they cherry-picked six e-mails to ask me about,” Costello said in a news conference following his testimony on Monday afternoon. “And of course they took them out of context. When they took them out of context, I told the grand jurors — I don’t know whether this will ultimately come to fruition or not — I told them to ask for the entire packet.”
Cohen rebutted most of Costello’s claims during an interview on MSNBC on Monday evening, denying that Costello had ever been his lawyer, that he had ever waived attorney-client privilege and that he was scheduled to appear again before the grand jury Wednesday.
“It’s a typical Donald J. Trump play out of the playbook,” Cohen said of Costello’s comments. “Figure out how you’re going to muddy the water as best as you possibly can, denigrate the person, disparage them.”
Costello also asserted that Cohen appeared distraught during a meeting they had, and was willing to do “whatever it takes” to avoid jail time.
“Well, he went to jail,” Costello said. “And now he’s on the revenge tour.”
On Monday, Costello said Cohen previously said he had not used Trump’s money to make the payment.
“The heart of it is that Michael Cohen told us that he was approached by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer and Stormy Daniels had negative information that she wanted to put in a lawsuit against Trump,” Costello said. “So Michael Cohen decided on his own — that’s what he told us, on his own — to see if he could take care of this.”
Cohen then took out a home equity loan for $130,000 to make the payment to Daniels, Costello said. But Cohen denied that contention.
“It’s absolutely not true. I don’t know what conversations he’s referring to,” Cohen said, when asked whether he had taken out a loan to make the payment. Cohen also said that Daniels intended not to sue, but to go public with the details of the alleged affair.
The expectation was that an indictment against the former president could drop as early as Monday evening. But Costello’s testimony could throw a wrench in that timeline.
“If they want to go after Donald Trump and they have solid evidence, so be it,” Costello said. “But Michael Cohen is far from solid evidence.”
Trump’s legal woes extend beyond Manhattan, however. The former president and 2024 presidential candidate is also facing criminal probes in Atlanta and Washington.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Cohen declined to give specifics about the sit-down, which he said was his 15th time talking with the district attorney’s office. He did say another meeting is planned.
“A 16th meeting has already been set, which indicates to me DA Bragg’s resolve in not allowing this matter to be forgotten,” he said in the text.
Cohen’s appearance comes as former Trump prosecutor Mark Pomerantz is promoting his book, “The People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” that criticizes his former boss Bragg for dropping a similar grand jury probe last year.
Cohen said he agreed with Bragg’s decision to stop pursing the case because there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Trump.
“The plane wasn’t ready,” he said outside the courthouse Wednesday of last year’s probe.
But things have changed.
“I think the plane may be right now on the tarmac and ready to take off,” Cohen said.
He was continuing a metaphor used by Pomerantz in the book, which says Bragg led the 2022 probe “into the legal equivalent of the plane crash.”
The revived investigation centers around whether the former president covered up money The Trump Organization paid to Daniels during the 2016 presidential election over an alleged affair, which he has denied having. Cohen has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels, which he said was at Trump’s direction.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
“When it comes to whether it’s the district attorney, the AG’s office … they all have people inside that office that leak information out. And so I feel it’s fair that our Political Beatdown family should know it as well,” Cohen said, referring to Bragg and Attorney General Tish James who is investigating Trump for civil financial fraud.
Former President Donald Trump could face minor criminal charges for trying to hide money paid to Daniels during his 2016 presidential run to keep her quiet about an earlier alleged affair, The New York Times reported last month. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels in 2006.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to evading campaign contributions in connection with the Daniels payment. Two years earlier, he’d sent $130,000 to Daniels, which he said was “at the direction of” Trump. The Trump Organization paid Cohen back, but falsely listed the payment as a legal cost, according to documents in his earlier case.
Cohen made the announcement as former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz is shopping his new book saying his former boss Bragg shouldn’t have stopped an earlier grand jury from investigating Trump last year.
“I do believe that Alvin Bragg is serious,” Cohen said Tuesday. “I believe that whatever occurred in the past is the past and I think he legitimately believes that there is a case to be made against Donald Trump.”
“Now, of course we’ll see. I’ll let everyone know at our next live event how everything went,“ he said. “Obviously I’m just speculating at this moment.“
A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
