Trump sues former lawyer Michael Cohen for $500m

Ex-US President Donald Trump is suing his former legal professional for $500m (£400m), alleging breach of agreement.

He says Michael Cohen breached his responsibility as attorney to act in his consumer’s best pursuits.

The lawsuit comes amid escalating attacks from Trump allies on Mr Cohen, who is a key witness in a ny investigation into the ex-president.

A new york prosecutor final week charged Mr Trump with fraud with regards to hush-money payments to a porn superstar.

Mr Cohen’s spokesman and lawyer, Lanny Davis, advised the BBC he turned into assured the lawsuit against his patron could fail.

The felony movement, filed in a Florida federal court docket, also accuses Mr Cohen of creating “mistaken, self-serving, and malicious statements about his former purchaser, his own family participants, and his business”.

Mr Cohen labored as Mr Trump’s attorney for extra than a decade. He was also a vice-president on the Trump corporation and turned into frequently described as Mr Trump’s fixer.

but the had a big falling out after the 2016 election, as investigators commenced looking into numerous of Mr Trump’s aides.

In 2018, Mr Cohen changed into sentenced to 3 years in jail and a pleasant, after pleading responsible to prices of fraud and marketing campaign finance violations.

Now out of prison, Mr Cohen has end up a excessive-profile critic of Mr Trump and a common visitor on news programmes.

He has written a e-book and hosts a podcast, both of which Mr Trump cites in the lawsuit, which claims Mr Cohen fabricated conversations and wrongfully known as Mr Trump a “racist” in his 2020 ebook Disloyal.

In a statement to the BBC, Mr Davis stated: “Mr Trump seems once again to be the use of and abusing the judicial device as a form of harassment and intimidation in opposition to Michael Cohen.

“It seems he is terrified by way of his looming felony perils and is making an attempt to send a message to different potential witnesses who are co-running with prosecutors against him.”

the big apple prosecutors have charged Mr Trump with 34 legal counts of falsifying commercial enterprise facts, in what they say became an effort to cowl up bills supposed to maintain former porn superstar Stormy Daniels, quiet approximately her alleged affair with the ex-president.

What the 34 legal charges against Trump display
On 4 April, Mr Trump regarded in long island criminal court – the first former US president ever indicted on crook prices. He pleaded not responsible.

Mr Cohen has admitted, while acting as Trump’s fixer, he facilitated a $one hundred thirty,000 (£104,000) pay-out to Ms Daniels.

As Mr Trump’s courtroom date approached, Mr Cohen made numerous appearances on main network news programmes and criticised his former boss.

“he’s now not thick-skinned,” Cohen instructed CNN, talking after Mr Trump’s indictment. “he’s absolutely very skinny-skinned, and he has a totally fragile ego.”