Cohen sues Trump Organization

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer fights for reimbursement of legal fees and fines.

WASHINGTON — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, is suing the Trump Organization for failing to reimburse him millions of dollars for his legal fees, fines and other costs.

Cohen, who testified before Congress last week at a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing, said in a lawsuit filed Thursday in New York that the Trump Organization had breached a July 2017 agreement under which it agreed to cover the costs Cohen incurred while participating in ongoing investigations into his work for the company.

Cohen is seeking more than $1.9 million in attorneys’ fees as well as an additional $1.9 million that he has been ordered to pay as part of his sentence for crimes he committed while working for Trump.

“All of these amounts were subject to the Trump Organization’s indemnification agreement,” the lawsuit states.

It alleges that after initially paying some of Cohen’s legal fees, the Trump Organization stopped paying him last June, once it “became clear that Mr. Cohen would cooperate in ongoing investigations into his work” on behalf of the company and Trump.

“As a result of the Trump Organization’s unfounded refusal to meet its indemnification obligations under the indemnification agreement, Mr. Cohen has incurred millions of dollars in unreimbursed attorneys’ fees and costs, plus additional indemnifiable amounts, and continues to incur attorneys’ fees and costs in connection with various ongoing investigations and litigation,” the lawsuit states.

Cohen wrote to the Trump Organization in late January requesting that it reimburse him for all outstanding amounts, but he received no reply, according to the court filing.

A lawyer for the Trump Organization disputed that there was ever a contract between Cohen and the company over his legal fees, written or oral. “It’s an act of desperation,” the lawyer said.

He asked not to be named because he was speaking about pending litigation.

Steve Ryan, Cohen’s former lawyer whose invoices are referenced in the suit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to people familiar with the matter, a dispute erupted in June over Cohen’s legal debts, which were being paid in part by the Trump Organization. The argument burst into public when it was reported that Cohen would be parting from the Trump Organization’s legal team, including Ryan, that had been representing him.

In Los Angeles, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit by porn actress Stormy Daniels that sought to tear up a hush-money settlement that Cohen has said he arranged at Trump’s direction in order to cover up allegation of a sexual encounter.

Judge S. James Otero ruled Thursday in U.S. District Court that the suit was irrelevant after Trump and his former personal lawyer agreed to rescind a nondisclosure agreement Daniels signed in exchange for a $130,000 payment.