Former President Trump (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) and Michael Cohen (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump has sued Michael Cohen for $500 million, threatening his ex-fixer and star witness against him in his criminal case with economic annihilation.
In a 32-page federal court complaint, Trump claims that Cohen “breached the contractual terms of the confidentiality agreement he signed as a condition of employment,” revealed the former president’s “confidences,” and spread “falsehoods” about him “with malicious intent and to wholly self-serving ends.”
Since pleading guilty to campaign finance violations undertaken at Trump’s “direction,” Cohen became one of the former president’s sharpest critics. He revealed the hush-money checks signed by Trump in congressional testimony and spoke dozens of times to the Manhattan District Attorney’s offices during the tenures of two of its leaders: Cyrus Vance and Alvin Bragg.
His insights into the byzantine system for executing $130,000 in hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and receiving $420,000 in return, in $35,000 monthly increments, helped produce the 34-count indictment against Trump currently pending in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Cohen also has made “myriad public statements, including the publication of two books, a podcast series, and innumerable mainstream media appearances,” Trump’s lawsuit notes.
Trump claims that he’s asked Cohen to “cease and desist such unacceptable actions,” but Cohen “appears to have become emboldened and repeatedly continues to make wrongful and false statements about Plaintiff through various platforms.”
The former president claims that those actions “reached a proverbial crescendo,” leaving no alternative except to sue him.
Cohen didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
This is a developing story.
Read the complaint here.
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