Cohen Has a Response to Trump's $500M Lawsuit

UPDATE Apr 13, 2023 5:43 AM CDT

Michael Cohen is looking for some help with legal expenses to fight a lawsuit from his former boss. Hours after former President Trump filed a lawsuit against the lawyer Wednesday, seeking more than $500 million in damages, Cohen shared a link to a GoFundMe campaign started on his behalf by a group called American Patriots, the Daily Beast reports. "No one has done more to hold Trump accountable for his corruption and authoritarian behavior than Michael," the GoFundMe page states. Cohen tweeted that he will "NEVER be intimidated" by Trump. As of this writing, the GoFundMe page has raised $8,200 toward its $100,000 target.

Apr 12, 2023 4:55 PM CDT

Former President Trump's current lawyers have filed a federal lawsuit against one of his former lawyers—Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a key witness against the former president if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's hush-money case goes to trial. Fox News quotes a source close to Trump's legal team as saying the lawsuit "has nothing to do with the Manhattan DA’s lawless and fact-less case and is a totally separate matter." The lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida Wednesday accuses Cohen, Trump's longtime "fixer" of violating the attorney-client relationship and revealing Trump's "confidences," Reuters reports.

The suit also accuses Cohen of spreading "falsehoods" in media appearances, his podcast, and his book Disloyal. "The timing of Disloyal's release, just prior to the November 3, 2020 Presidential Election, suggests that Defendant intended to improperly disclose Plaintiff's confidences when it would be most lucrative to do so—and while Disloyal would be sure to have the most damaging reputational effect," the lawsuit states. It states Trump is demanding damages "in an amount to be determined at trial, but expected to substantially exceed $500,000,000." Cohen worked as a lawyer for the Trump Organization until early 2017 and continued to represent Trump personally until the summer of 2018.

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Cohen, who served time in prison in connection with the hush-money payments and other federal charges, testified before the grand jury that voted to indict Trump. "Mr. Trump is once again 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, per CNN. Davis said Cohen "will not be deterred and is confident that the suit will fail based on the facts and the law." (More Donald Trump stories.)