Former President Donald Trump is suing his former lawyer Michael Cohen for more than $500 million, according to a filing in a Florida court Wednesday.
Newsmax has confirmed the filing through a source familiar with Trump's legal team. The lawsuit is unrelated to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's 34-count indictment of Trump for falsifying business records.
Cohen testified before a Manhattan grand jury that later indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump is seeking damages from Cohen in a trial for compensatory, incidental, actual, and punitive losses.
"This is an action arising from multiple breaches of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment, conversion, and breaches of contract by virtue of past service as employee and attorney," the lawsuit read.
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 No. 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 said.
Cohen was a top executive at Trump's real estate company and then worked as his personal lawyer when Trump assumed office in 2017.
While Cohen said that year he would "do anything" to protect Trump, his stance had changed dramatically by 2019, when he testified before a U.S. congressional committee.
"I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is," Cohen told the panel. "He is a racist. He is a con man. He is a cheat."
Cohen in 2018 pleaded guilty to violating federal election law through the $130,000 payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels. He was sentenced to three years in prison for that and other crimes, including cheating on his personal taxes and lying under oath to Congress about when the Trump Organization stopped working on a proposed building project in Russia.
Trump denies the affair with Daniels. He is accused by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of falsifying Trump Organization records to conceal he reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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