Former President Donald Trump launched a lawsuit against his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, claiming at least US$500 million in damages for allegedly breaching his contract.. Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels .Filed in a Florida federal court Wednesday, the lawsuit says Cohen spread untruths about Trump and breached his contractional obligations to Trump in public statements, books, podcasts and other media..CNN reports, “Cohen, Trump’s onetime ‘fixer,’ has recently reentered the national spotlight after Trump pleaded not guilty last week to 34 charges of falsifying business records following an investigation into hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The payments were coordinated by Cohen in the days before the 2016 election, and Cohen’s cooperation with prosecutors has drawn the ire of the former president.”.In a statement, Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, said, “Mr. Trump is once again using and abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation against Michael Cohen. Mr. Cohen will not be deterred and is confident the suit will fail based on the facts and the law.”.Trump’s legal team wrote in the suit Cohen “misrepresented a business expenditure and stated that he was owed an extra $74,000 over the true amount of the expenditure,” says The New York Post, adding, “The former president is seeking ‘compensatory, incidental, and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial, but expected to substantially exceed $500 million, the complaint said.”.The complaint also said Trump is seeking restitution for “profits, payments, compensations, advances, royalties” or other proceeds Cohen receives from the publication of his books or his podcast..“Trump’s legal team said in the suit the former president has 'no alternative but to seek legal redress' to combat an emboldened Cohen, who, according to the complaint, recently made continuous and increasingly false statements about his former boss,” says CNN..The suit says Cohen, in media interviews, revealed information considered to be confidential about the grand jury investigation leading to Trump’s indictment..“During one such appearance, for example, defendant discussed 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 testified several times before the grand jury investigating a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, money intended to ensure Daniels’ silence about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006..Cohen was found guilty of violating federal election law due to the payment in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in federal prison..The lawsuit additionally 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,” adding, “Trump’s former personal attorney 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.”
