Why Donald Trump Suing Michael Cohen may be a Mistake: The former president has sued his former lawyer and fixer for $500 million. One legal analysis calls it a potential mistake.
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What We Know
Michael Cohen spent many years as Donald Trump’s personal attorney and was a frequent presence and on-air surrogate during Trump’s initial political rise.
Cohen even served as the deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee for the first year of Trump’s presidency. As part of his duties as Trump’s “fixer,” Cohen says he arranged the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
The two men then had a widely-publicized break after Cohen’s office was raided. By the end of 2018, he had been imprisoned for pleading guilty to perjury, tax evasion, and campaign finance violations.
Cohen was disbarred as a lawyer and spent time in prison, and has since emerged as a professional Donald Trump opponent, both writing a book about his time working for Trump and hosting a podcast. Stormy Daniels, in early 2021, appeared on Cohen’s podcast, marking the first time the two had ever met.
Donald Trump Sues…
More recently, Cohen has appeared multiple times before the grand jury in Manhattan that ultimately indicted Donald Trump.
Cohen’s status as a convicted perjurer is said to be one of the reasons the Manhattan case isn’t as strong as it could be. And now, Trump is suing his former lawyer.
Per CNN, Trump has sued Cohen for $500 million, claiming that Cohen breached his contractual obligations in his commentary over the last several years, including his books and podcast.
The former attorney “chose to capitalize on his confidential relationship with (Trump) to pursue financial gain and repair a reputation shattered by his repeated misrepresentations and deceptive acts, fueled by his animus toward the Plaintiff and his family members,” Trump’s lawsuit against Cohen says, per CNN.
An MSNBC analysis indicated that Trump may regret the suit.
“Filing a case against Cohen is a classic Trumpian move. Trump uses lawsuits like stump speeches,” columnist Jessica Levinson wrote. “Despite his claims that others weaponize the legal system against him for political purposes, that is precisely what Trump has done, and appears to be doing here. Filing a lawsuit, even one that may later be tossed out as frivolous, allows Trump to claim that what Cohen allegedly did to him is so egregious that he had to resort to using the legal system.”
One contradiction in the case is that Trump is accusing Cohen of lying about him, but also that Cohen has breached attorney-client privilege, indicating that Cohen revealed privileged information that was true.
“Hence Trump appears to allege that Cohen divulged truthful information about him that is covered by the attorney-client privilege, but also that Cohen spread numerous falsehoods about him. These two arguments may prove to be at odds,” Levinson writes.
Of course, the lawsuit, if it proceeds, will include discovery, and Trump and his attorneys would likely have to reveal, at some point, what truthful information Cohen revealed.
“If Trump feels his best legal strategy is to undermine Bragg’s key witness, that may indicate the weakness of the other arguments we will see inside the courtroom,” the columnist said. “As I’ve previously mentioned, Bragg’s case appears winnable. Cohen is not the perfect witness; he has pleaded guilty to felonies. But prosecutors build cases around less-than-ideal witnesses all the time. Perfect witnesses appear in television shows, but not often real courtrooms.”
Cohen responded to the suit, in a CNN appearance Thursday.
“I was surprised- not shocked, but I was surprised. It was part of the Trump playbook, I mean, we’ve used it before,” Cohen said, of his time working with Trump and a past lawsuit against the New York Times.
He also compared Donald Trump to the movie villain Dr. Evil, when trying to decide the amount for which to sue Cohen. Cohen also denied that he ever signed a non-disclosure agreement or confidentiality agreement, as alleged by the suit.
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Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
