Former US President Donald Trump has dropped charges against his former lawyer Michael Cohen. He became a prosecution witness in the case that will see him tried in New York state courts in 2024. In a legal document filed with this court on Thursday, October 5, he announced that he would voluntarily withdraw his lawsuit without explanation.
Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in April in federal court in Florida against the lawyer for breach of professional privilege and the confidentiality agreement between them and demanded $ 500 million (almost 473 million euros) in damages.
“In lieu of having to testify before me on Monday, Donald Trump voluntarily abandoned his $500 million damages lawsuit against our client Michael Cohen,” it said in a statement. communicated published overnight from Thursday to Friday Danya Perry, Mr Cohen’s lawyer.
“Mr. Trump’s cowardly resignation marks the end of his latest attempt to dissuade me from making truthful statements against him,” said Michael Cohen.
Shortly before the 2016 presidential election, the man who was then nicknamed “Donald Trump’s Pitbull” paid $130,000 (120,000 euros) out of his own pocket to the porn film star Stormy Daniels so that she would keep quiet about a sexual relationship Was with her boss in 2006.
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Charged with accounting falsification
After the Wall Street Journal exposed this transaction in January 2018, the lawyer represented the president and asserted that he never received a refund. However, the article aroused the interest of the judiciary. Surrounded by investigators who discovered tax fraud in his accounts, Michael Cohen turned against Donald Trump by admitting that he received 11 checks to cover expenses incurred by Stormy Daniels.
However, these payments were recorded as legal fees in the Trump Organization’s accounts, which led to Donald Trump being accused by the New York State judiciary of accounting fraud. The trial is scheduled for the end of March 2024.
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The legal calendar promises to be busy for the Republican billionaire, who wants to retake the White House in a year. His trial in federal court in Washington over his alleged unlawful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election begins March 4.
He is also scheduled to be tried in a Florida court in May for his negligent handling of classified documents after leaving the White House and at an as-yet-undetermined date in Georgia state courts for his actions during the 2020 election.
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