Michael Cohen lost a major part of his lawsuit against the Trump Organization.
A New York state court judge ruled Wednesday that Trump’s former personal lawyer will have to be responsible for most of his own legal fees, dismissing most of the now-incarcerated Cohen’s claims in a lawsuit seeking nearly $4 million.
Thread: A NY judge ruled yesterday that the Trump Org. is off the hook for paying much, but not all, of the $3.8M+ Michael Cohen says he owes in legal bills and criminal case penalties: https://t.co/VTR7sTIXxQ pic.twitter.com/V24WgZ0PMr
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 29, 2019
Justice Joel Cohen tossed much of Cohen’s lawsuit which he filed back in March, claiming the Trump Organization had promised to cover the legal costs he incurred related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The company apparently did pay some of the fees but stopped after reports that Cohen was planning to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
In a hearing earlier this month, the judge questioned Cohen’s claim wondering how the verbal agreement he had with the real estate company could be valid.
“There’s no way for the agreement to be completed within a year,” the judge said at the hearing. “It just means the defendant would have to be on guard forever.”
Cohen claims he had an oral agreement with the Trump Org. to cover his legal expenses — the judge ruled that, assuming that’s true (it’s in an early phase), the Trump Org. could have to pay re: matters pending when they reached the alleged agreement in July 2017, but not after
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 29, 2019
Cohen claimed $1.9M+ in legal bills covering everything from congressional investigations and the Mueller probe to lawsuits filed by Stormy Daniels. The lawsuit alleges the Trump Org *did* cover his legal expenses for a while, but stopped when he started cooperating with the feds
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 29, 2019
The Trump Organization had accused Cohen of trying to score a “payday” and asked that the lawsuit be dismissed earlier this year.
Cohen, who is currently serving a three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations, can still have his costs reimbursed for proceedings and investigations that were pending in July 2017.
It’s not clear how much of Cohen’s legal bills are still on the table now that the judge took any post-July 2017 matters off the table. Judge said TBD about whether certain matters were “future” post-July 2017 matters, or a continuation of something pending as of July 2017 pic.twitter.com/6qhXQv7CU8
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 29, 2019
But the former Trump attorney’s claim to have his criminal fines and penalties covered by the company was not approved by the judge who ruled that it was “void as against public policy.”
Notably, the judge also ruled that Cohen couldn’t press a separate claim for the Trump Org. to pay ~$1.9M that Cohen owes in criminal fines and forefeitures — even if they had an agreement about that, the judge said it would be “void as against public policy” pic.twitter.com/Q8Mu2RdMe0
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 29, 2019
“The judge’s decision was thoughtful and took a large chunk out of the plaintiff’s claims,” Marc Mukasey, an attorney for the Trump Organization, said.
From the Trump Org’s lawyer Marc Mukasey: “The judge’s decision was thoughtful and took a large chunk out of the plaintiff’s claims. We look forward to doing away with the leftover claims in due course.” Also reached out to Cohen’s counsel for comment, haven’t heard back yet.
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) August 29, 2019
“We look forward to doing away with the leftover claims in due course,” he added.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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