Former President Donald Trump sued his onetime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen on Wednesday, seeking at least $500 million for alleged breaches of contract and “unjust enrichment.”
The civil suit, filed in federal court in Miami, accused Cohen of “spreading falsehoods” about Trump, violating his attorney-client relationship and breaching a confidentiality agreement he had signed with the Trump Organization.
The allegations against Cohen, whose once-close relationship with Trump imploded in 2018, come as the disbarred lawyer has become a key witness against the former president in a criminal case in Manhattan.
Trump, the first ex-president to face criminal charges, pleaded not guilty earlier this month to 34 counts of falsifying business records in that case. It centers on hush money payments made before the 2016 presidential election, which Cohen facilitated for Trump.
The famously litigious former president has previously been accused of using the courts as a cudgel against his adversaries.
Alejandro Brito, Trump’s attorney in the case, referred CNBC’s questions about the timing of the new lawsuit against Cohen to a spokesman for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. The spokesman said in a statement that the lawsuit and Cohen’s alleged wrongdoings “stand for themselves.”
The complaint alleged Cohen’s fiduciary obligations owed to Trump “survive the attorney-client relationship and Defendant’s disbarment and are still in effect today.”
Cohen’s “most egregious breaches of fiduciary duty and contract” came in connection with the tell-all books he published in 2020 and 2022, as well as claims made on his podcast, “Mea Culpa,” the lawsuit alleged.
“Mr. Trump appears once again to be 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.
Davis said the “frivolous” lawsuit suggests Trump 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.”