
(RepublicanNews.org) – Former President Donald Trump has filed suit against the attorney who used to work for him, and who arranged $130,000 in hush money payments from Trump to an adult film actress.
Trump sued attorney Michael Cohen for $500,000,000 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on April 12. Trump claims Cohen violated the attorney-client relationship, unjustly enriched himself at Trump’s expense, and spread lies that would damage Trump’s reputation.
The suit comes just a week after Trump pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court to 34 felony counts of financial mismanagement. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is prosecuting Trump with a novel legal theory that claims Trump’s hush-money payments to actress Stormy Daniels (hush money is not illegal) somehow constituted an improper donation from Trump to Trump’s own presidential campaign in 2016.
Trump’s suit claims that Cohen violated the lawyer-client relationship by telling lies about Trump that would be “embarrassing or detrimental.” It also alleges Cohen broke the terms of a confidentiality contract he signed when working for Trump.
It goes further, claiming Cohen did these things “with malicious intent.” Cohen made numerous false statements on podcasts, in two books, and on mainstream media, the suit says, ignoring a series of cease-and-desist letters from Trump.
Though Trump associates say this suit has nothing to do with the prosecution by New York prosecutor Bragg, the same players are implicated.
While working as Trump’s attorney, Cohen paid Stormy Daniels a total of $130,000 to buy her silence about an affair she claims she had with Trump in 2006. Trump reimbursed Cohen in installments.
In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging those payments, and other federal charges. These included making a false statement to a financial institution, making false statements to Congress, and tax evasion. He spent three years in prison.
Trump’s suit claims Cohen’s “illicit” statements about the former President have increased in recent months.
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