Michael Cohen settles suit with Trump Organization days before trial start
Michael Cohen has settled a lawsuit with the Trump Organization just days before a trial was set to start — and where Donald Trump Jr. was expected to testify.
On Friday, lawyers for both Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and “fixer,” and for the Trump real estate company let a judge known they had settled Thursday night.
“Your honor, the parties reached agreement on confidential terms last night,” Cohen’s lawyer Hunter Winstead told the judge during a video conference.
“Thank you for letting us know and keeping us in suspense up until almost the last moment,” Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen joked.
The lawyers did not reveal the terms of a settlement they said would be finalized in the near future.
Cohen had been expected to seek nearly a million dollars at trial from Trump Org.
The news came after a jury had already been selected earlier in the week, and as opening statements were set for Monday. Don Jr. was expected to take the witness stand Tuesday.
Cohen sued the company where he served as executive vice president for over a decade in 2019, claiming it should be on the hook for unpaid legal fees that piled up because of various probes into then-President Trump — including by Congress, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Cohen claimed Trump Org. officials made verbal agreements with him in 2017 promising to cover the legal costs for cooperating in the investigations.
Don Jr. would have been called because, as the CEO of the company, he had to sign off on the legal fees the company paid out.
Cohen’s home, office and hotel room were raided by the feds in April 2018 and he later served prison time after pleading guilty to lying to Congress, violating campaign finance law and tax evasion.
The settlement marks one less legal woe for Trump, 77, who was charged in a Florida federal case with hoarding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The 45th President is also charged in a New York “hush money” case for allegedly directing Cohen to pay off former porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about claims she had an affair with Trump when he was married to Melania Trump.
The former commander-in-chief has also signaled he may imminently be charged for his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2020, Capitol riot.
