Trump abandons $500 mln lawsuit against former attorney Michael Cohen

Former US President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw a $500 million lawsuit that he had filed against his former attorney, Michael Cohen. The lawsuit accused Cohen of breaching his fiduciary duty by disclosing Trump's "confidences". Trump had alleged that the lawyer spread "falsehoods" in books and media and called him a "racist" which damaged his repute, Reuters reported. 

Trump was originally scheduled to give a deposition in the case but postponed it until next week, citing his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York. Notably, the civil trial is against Trump, his eldest sons, their companies, and Trump Organisation executives for allegedly inflating asset valuation by approximately $3.6 billion in three separate years between 2011 and 2021. 

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Trump's latest decision to drop the lawsuit against his former attorney was announced in a brief one-page court filing on Thursday (Oct 5).

The lawsuit had primarily targeted Cohen's book, his podcast, and his public statements, all of which were critical of Trump and detailed their long-standing relationship.

The suit alleged that Cohen had used his "confidential relationship" with Trump for financial gains, which constituted "grave violations" of his contractual and fiduciary duties to the former president.

In response to Trump's decision to dismiss the lawsuit, Michael Cohen issued a statement on Thursday (Oct 5), describing the case as a "retaliatory" measure. "This case was nothing more than a retaliatory intimidation tactic, and his attempt to hide from routine discovery procedures confirms as much," the former attorney said in the statement. 

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Trump had initially filed the lawsuit in April. It came shortly after pleading not guilty to 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records.

These charges were connected to reimbursements made to Cohen for hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump reportedly gave $130,000 to Daniels in October of that year to make sure that she did not disclose her sexual relationship with the former President. Initially, Trump's former lawyer Cohen said he paid Daniels himself and there was no direction by the Trump campaign to do so. However, he later contradicted his statements and said that it was Trump who directed him to make the payment and then reimbursed the money.

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