Please try another search
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen speaks to members of media for former attorney Michael Avenatti criminal trial in, at the United States Courthouse in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., January 24, 20
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Cohen, the onetime personal lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, can sue the Trump Organization to cover millions of dollars in legal fees from defending against investigations into his work for the former U.S. president, a New York state appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
Cohen, now a vocal Trump critic, said the real estate company stopped paying his bills after he began cooperating with several investigations. Among these were probes into Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Trump's efforts to silence women who claimed they had affairs with him.
In a 5-0 decision, the Appellate Division in Manhattan said a trial judge erred in dismissing Cohen's lawsuit. The court said it was unclear whether Cohen's legal fees mounted because he had been a Trump Organization employee, which would entitle him to reimbursement.
Justice Joel Cohen, the trial judge, had ruled last November that Cohen's fees "arise out of his (sometimes unlawful) service to Mr. Trump personally, to Mr. Trump's campaign and to the Trump Foundation, but not out of his service to the business of the Trump Organization, which is the only defendant."
Michael Cohen originally sued in March 2019 to recoup $1.9 million in fees, plus $1.9 million he was ordered to forfeit in a criminal case. The fees kept growing, and the Trump Organization has paid some of them, court papers show.
Lawyers for the company and Cohen did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Michael Cohen and Justice Cohen are not related.
Cohen served a three-year sentence, partially in home confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic, after pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and tax evasion.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan dismissed Cohen's lawsuit accusing Trump and the government of returning him to prison from home confinement for 16 days in July 2020, in retaliation for publicizing his tell-all book. The book, "Disloyal: A Memoir," became a New York Times bestseller.
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
I feel that this comment is:
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.