Former President Donald Trump is suing his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for more than $500 million.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, accuses Cohen of betraying the attorney-client relationship, improper enrichment, and spreading falsehoods. The suit cites Cohen’s public statements, including in books, and says Cohen ignored “cease and desist” orders.
“This is an action arising from [Cohen’s] multiple breaches of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, conversion and breaches of contract by virtue of [Cohen’s] past service as [Trump’s] employee and attorney,” the lawsuit states.
In addition to estimating more than $500 million in damages should the lawsuit be successful, the complaint seeks $74,000 subject to an allegedly “unlawful conversion and made via fraudulent misrepresentation” by Cohen, plus interest and other costs and expenses.
Lanny Davis, an attorney for Cohen, released a statement that said Trump is “once again using and abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation against Michael Cohen.”
“It appears he is terrified by his looming legal perils and is attempting to send a message to other potential witnesses who are cooperating with prosecutors against him,” Davis added. “Mr. Cohen will not be deterred and is confident that the suit will fail based on the facts and the law.”
Michael Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis accuses Trump of “abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation” with his $500 million lawsuit.
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The lawsuit comes after a significant escalation in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into Trump making so-called hush money payments during the 2016 election cycle. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records last week after being indicted by a grand jury.
Though Cohen testified to the grand jury and has spoken out about the case, a source close to Trump’s legal team told Fox News, which broke the story about the lawsuit against Cohen, that the complaint has “nothing to do” with Bragg’s inquiry.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a number of crimes, including lying to Congress and over his facilitating payments to two women threatening to come forward with allegations about alleged affairs with Trump, which the former president has denied. Cohen, who claimed Trump directed the hush money payments, was sentenced to three years in prison. He was released in late 2021.
Ever since his break with Trump, Cohen has spoken out about regretting his “blind loyalty” that he says led him to cover up his former boss’s “dirty deeds.”
Trump is months into another campaign for the presidency and is facing legal jeopardy from multiple investigations that he claims are being run by politically motivated prosecutors. In a $250 million New York civil fraud case, Trump asked a judge this month to force Cohen to appear for a deposition.
In January, Trump and one of his attorneys were ordered to pay fines of nearly $1 million over a Russiagate lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others that a judge had deemed to be “frivolous.”