Michael Cohen Agrees to Settle Damages at Trump Organization

[ad_1]

Michael D. Cohen, Donald J. Trump’s longtime fixer, who is set to go to trial next week against his former boss’s firm in a dispute over legal fees, has agreed to settle his case with the Trump Organization, lawyers for both parties said in a brief court hearing Friday.

The lawsuit of Mr. Cohens, filed in 2019, accused the Trump Organization of defaulting on the terms of a deal and refusing to pay more than $1 million in legal costs. Jury selection for the trial began earlier this week, and opening arguments are scheduled for Monday.

But at Friday’s hearing, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen, Hunter Winstead, and a lawyer for the Trump Organization, James D. Kiley, said they had agreed on terms for a settlement. The agreement is not yet final and the details will be kept confidential. The judge in the case, Joel Cohen, who is no relation to Mr. Cohen, said he would postpone the trial pending a final settlement.

Mr. Cohen said in a statement that the matter was resolved in a manner satisfactory to all parties.

A separate case filed by Mr. Trump against Mr. Cohen in Florida federal court remains active, and Mr. Cohen is still expected to be the star witness against the former president in a Manhattan criminal trial next year.

Mr. argued. Cohen that the Trump Organization has agreed, orally and in writing, to cover any attorney’s fees he incurred in multiple congressional hearings and investigations in 2017 and 2018, including the criminal inquiry conducted by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Mr. Cohen said the Trump Organization initially paid these bills but stopped the payments after he agreed to cooperate with the investigations.

Mr. Cohen was once a close ally of Mr. Trump is a trusted lieutenant whose job it is to clean up his bosses. One such situation came during the 2016 election, when Mr. Cohen learned that a porn star, Stormy Daniels, was looking to sell a story about having sex with Mr. Trump years ago.

Soon after, Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet. The following year, Mr. Trump paid Mr. Cohen’s installment is now the subject of a Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against the former president.

In 2018, as part of a federal investigation into hush money, FBI agents sought Mr. Cohens home, office and a hotel where his family lived. The legal pressure put a strain on his relationship with Mr. Trump, and the men had a fall. In August of that year, Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to numerous crimes, including some related to hush money payments, and months later, he cemented his role as a Trump antagonist when he testified about the then-president at a high-profile congressional hearing.

Mr. Cohen has been a thorn in Mr. Trump ever since. He was a key witness for the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, who charged the former president with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments to Mr. Cohen. In April, Mr. Trump of his own case against Mr. Cohen, accusing the former fixer of betraying his confidences and spreading lies about him. That lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, was not part of the settlement talks.

Although the settlement between Mr. Cohen and the Trump Organization will almost certainly prevent the scheduled trial, Mr. Trump has no shortage of legal engagements on his calendar. A case filed against him by the New York attorney general is scheduled to go to trial in October, and a criminal trial related to the hush money payments is scheduled for March next year. There are also two civil trials scheduled for January, including a second trial over whether he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll.

Mr. Trump has also been charged by federal prosecutors for his handling of sensitive material and for obstructing their investigation. On Friday, the judge in that case scheduled a trial date for May 2024. And two other potential charges against Mr. Trump: one from federal prosecutors related to the actions of former presidents in the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol in January 2021 and one from a Georgia district attorney, Fani Willis, related to possible interference in the state election.

Mr. Trump is not expected to appear in Manhattan at the trial stemming from Mr. Cohens. But a settlement would prevent a courtroom showdown between Mr. Cohen and the president’s former son Donald Trump Jr., who Mr. Cohen subpoenaed earlier this month to testify about his approval of legal fees in his capacity as executive vice president for the Trump Organization. He is expected to stand trial next week.

[ad_2]