Donald Trump Sues Former Attorney Michael Cohen for Telling People About All His Alleged Crimes

Once upon a time, Donald Trump could rely on attorney Michael Cohen to do his dirty work, like demanding The Onion take down an article with Trump’s byline and a headline that read, “When You’re Feeling Low, Just Remember I’ll Be Dead in About 15 Or 20 Years”; or paying a porn star $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair. “If somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn’t like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump’s benefit,” Cohen told ABC News in 2011. “If you do something wrong, I’m going to come at you, grab you by the neck, and I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished.” We’re guessing Trump liked this arrangement, because he employed Cohen for more than a decade. Fast-forward a few years, though, and the ex-president is no longer so pleased with his former “fixer”—which presumably has something to do with Cohen telling a grand jury everything he knows about the hush money deals that led to Trump being charged with nearly three dozen felonies last week.

Per Reuters:

Former US President Donald Trump is suing his former lawyer Michael Cohen for more than $500 million, according to a filing in federal court in Florida on Wednesday. The lawsuit comes after Cohen, once Trump’s loyal “fixer,” testified before a Manhattan grand jury that later indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, marking the first time in US history that a former president has been charged with a crime. Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, pleaded not guilty in that case on April 4. Cohen is poised to be a star witness in any eventual trial in the case, which centers around a hush money payment he made before the 2016 election to a porn star who says she slept with Trump.

The lawsuit accuses Cohen of violating his attorney-client relationship with Trump by revealing his “confidences” and “spreading falsehoods” in books, podcasts, and media appearances. It says Cohen wrongfully called Trump “racist” in his 2020 book, Disloyal, and fabricated conversations with Trump.

“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 reportedly reads. If you’re doing the math, Cohen’s book came out about 2.5 years ago, and while we’re not legal experts, it appears that this suit has a lot less to do with the things Cohen said about Trump in Disloyal than what he told a Manhattan grand jury last month.

Cohen’s testimony was presumably of significant interest to the grand jury given his central role in the hush money case. Cohen was the one who paid Stormy Daniels in October 2016, and was subsequently reimbursed while Trump was in office, with the leader of the free world, per The New York Times, “signing monthly checks.” Asked while testifying before Congress why his reimbursement was spread out over several months instead of being taken care of in one lump sum, given that Trump could clearly afford it, Cohen said it was “in order to hide what the payment was” and make it “look like a retainer.” Asked during the congressional testimony if Trump knew about the deal, Cohen answered, “Oh, he knew about everything, yes.”

Cohen did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Something something Trump is my lord and savior, something something throw the Clintons in jail