WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Michael Cohen, the onetime personal lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, has settled his lawsuit accusing the Trump Organization of failing to cover millions of dollars of legal fees and costs he incurred over his work for the former U.S. president.
In a statement on Friday, Cohen said “this matter has been resolved in a manner satisfactory to all parties.”
The Trump Organization and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Cohen originally sued in March 2019 to recoup $1.9 million in fees, plus $1.9 million he was ordered to forfeit in a criminal case. The fees kept growing, and the Trump Organization has paid some of them, court papers show.
A trial in the civil case had been scheduled to begin on July 24 in a New York state court in Manhattan.
Cohen is now a vocal Trump critic. His 2020 memoir “Disloyal” was a New York Times bestseller.
Despite Friday’s settlement, Cohen is expected to be a star prosecution witness against Trump in a criminal trial next year.
That case concerns payments Cohen made, and which Trump reimbursed, to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet prior to the 2016 presidential election about her alleged affair with Trump, which he denies.
Cohen also still faces a $500 million lawsuit from Trump in a Florida federal court, where Trump accused him of revealing “confidences” and “spreading falsehoods” in books and media, and damaging his reputation by calling him “racist.”
Friday’s settlement resolves Cohen’s claims that the Trump Organization stopped paying his bills after he began cooperating with several probes into his work for the former president.
These included inquiries into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, and Trump’s efforts to silence women who claimed they had affairs with him.
Trump, a Republican who is again seeking the presidency, faces many other legal problems.
These include a federal indictment over classified documents he took from the White House, and possible charges over his efforts to remain president after his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Cohen served a three-year sentence, partially in prison and partially in home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic, after pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and tax evasion.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld, Katharine Jackson and Ismail Shakil in Washington, D.C., and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Kanishka Singh, Doina Chiacu and Daniel Wallis)
Comments