Donald Trump, a former president, is suing Michael Cohen for $500 million in damages after Cohen allegedly broke his agreement to serve as Trump’s personal attorney.
In the lawsuit, which was submitted on Wednesday to a federal court in Florida, Cohen is charged with spreading untrue information about Trump and breaking his agreement with the former president through his public pronouncements, books that have been published, podcasts, and other media appearances.
After Trump filed a not guilty plea to 34 charges of falsifying business records last week as a result of an investigation into hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, Cohen, Trump’s former “fixer,” has recently returned to the national spotlight. The payments were organized by Cohen in the days leading up to the 2016 election, and the former president is upset with Cohen because of his cooperation with prosecutors.
“Mr. Trump is once again using and abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation against Michael Cohen,” Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, said in a statement.
“Mr. Cohen will not be deterred and is confident that the suit will fail based on the facts and the law,” he added.
Trump’s legal team said in the suit that the former president has “no alternative but to seek legal redress” to combat an emboldened Cohen, who they allege has recently ramped up false statements about his former boss.
According to the lawsuit, Cohen revealed confidential information in talking about his prior-attorney-client relationship with Trump during media interviews about the Manhattan District Attorney’s grand jury investigation that led to the former president’s indictment.
“During one such appearance, for example, Defendant discussed that he testified in front of the Manhattan District Attorney’s grand jury, and suggested that Plaintiff was, by virtue of Defendant’s knowledge of confidential information, criminally exposed,” the lawsuit states.
Cohen also violated an employee confidentiality agreement he signed with The Trump Organization when he published his two books that discuss Trump, the lawsuit claims.
Cohen “chose to capitalize on his confidential relationship with (Trump) to pursue financial gain and repair a reputation shattered by his repeated misrepresentations and deceptive acts, fueled by his animus toward the Plaintiff and his family members,” the lawsuit states.
Cohen never asked for permission from Trump to disclose any confidential information that should’ve been protected by that agreement and his attorney-client obligations before publishing the books, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint also alleges that, like his books, Cohen has put out “inflammatory, misleading, or outright false” information in his podcast “Mea Culpa.”