Former US President Donald Trump has dropped his charges against his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who served as a prosecution witness in the case that will bring him to trial in New York state courts in 2024.
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Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in April in federal court in Florida (Southeast) against the lawyer for breach of professional privilege and the confidentiality agreement between them and demanded $ 500 million in damages.
However, in a legal document filed with this court on Thursday evening, he announced that he was withdrawing his lawsuit voluntarily and without explanation.
“In lieu of having to testify before me on Monday, Donald Trump voluntarily abandoned his $500 million damages lawsuit against our client Michael Cohen,” Danya Perry, Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, said in a statement released overnight.
“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 then nicknamed “Donald Trump’s Pit Bull” paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a porn film star, Stormy Daniels, to keep quiet about a sexual relationship he allegedly had with her boss in 2016.
After the Wall Street Journal exposed this transaction in January 2018, the lawyer represented the president and asserted that he never received a refund.
But the article aroused the interest of the judiciary. Surrounded by investigators who discovered tax fraud in his accounts, Michael Cohen turned against Donald Trump and admitted receiving 11 checks to cover expenses incurred with the porn star.
However, these payments were recorded as “legal fees” in the Trump Organization’s accounts, which led to Donald Trump being indicted by the New York State judiciary for “accounting fraud.” The trial is scheduled for the end of March 2024.
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 the Georgia state justice system for his actions during the 2020 election.