Trump sues Michael Cohen for $500M, alleging he ‘spread falsehoods’

Former President Donald Trump has sued Michael Cohen, his former attorney and “fixer” who has emerged as a key witness in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against Trump, for $500 million — alleging that Cohen “spread falsehoods” about him and violated a confidentiality agreement. 

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court for the Southern District of Florida, claims that Cohen breached his attorney-client privilege by revealing Trump’s “confidences, and spreading falsehoods … likely to be embarrassing or detrimental, and partook in other misconduct” in violation of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct.

The court document says Cohen also breached a confidentiality agreement he signed as a condition of employment by “spreading falsehoods” about the 76-year-old Trump “with malicious intent and to wholly self-serving ends.”

Trump’s legal team write in the suit that Cohen “misrepresented a business expenditure, and stated that he was owed an extra $74,000 over the true amount of the expenditure.”

The suit also alleges that Cohen committed the violations through public statements, books, a podcast series and “innumerable mainstream media appearances.”

As a result, Trump claims, he has “suffered vast reputational harm as a direct result.”

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The former president is seeking “compensatory, incidental, and punitive damages” in an amount to be determined at trial “but expected to substantially exceed” $500 million, the complaint said. 

Trump also wants as restitution any “profits, payments, compensations, advances, royalties” or other proceeds Cohen receives from the publication of his books or his podcast. 

He also wants the $74,000 returned, plus interest.

Cohen testified a number of times before the Manhattan grand jury investigating a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. The panel returned a 34-count indictment against Trump for falsifying business records.

Cohen made the payment to Daniels to ensure her silence about a sexual affair she alleged she had with the real estate mogul a decade earlier. 

In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating federal election law with the Daniels payment and was sentenced to three years in federal prison. 

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Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels or having any involvement in the payment.

Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels or having any involvement in the payment. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in the indictment at his arraignment in Manhattan criminal court April 4 . 

Lanny Davis, Cohen’s attorney, denounced Trump’s lawsuit as “harassment” and an “intimidation” attempt. 

“Mr. Trump is once again using and abusing the judicial system as a form of harassment and intimidation against Michael Cohen,” Davis said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Mr. Cohen will not be deterred and is confident that the suit will fail based on the facts and the law.”

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A source close to Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital that the lawsuit against Cohen “has nothing to do with the Manhattan DA’s lawless and fact-less case and is a totally separate matter.”

The 32-page suit details Cohen’s work as counsel for the Trump Organization beginning in 2006 and contains several glowing statements Trump’s former fixer purportedly made about his boss. 

“Among other innumerable positive statements made by [Cohen] about [Trump] and his role as [Trump’s] attorney, [Cohen] described his job as ‘very surreal,’ claiming he had ‘been admiring Donald Trump since high school,’” the lawsuit states. “[Cohen] viewed [Trump] as a ‘wonderful man’ who would be ‘an amazing president,’ and someone [Cohen] thought ‘the world’ of as ‘a businessman’ and ‘a boss.’”

“[Cohen] stated that [Trump] was ‘smart’ and ‘the greatest negotiator on the planet,’ and described his own role as the one ‘who protects the President and the family,’ and strongly stated that he ‘would take a bullet’ for Trump,” the lawsuit continues.

Trump’s legal team also points to statements made by prosecutors during the federal investigation of Cohen to claim that disgraced lawyer was “motivated … by personal greed” and effectuated by “repeatedly using his power and influence for deceptive ends.” 

“[Cohen] chose to capitalize on his confidential relationship with [Trump] to pursue financial gain and repair a reputation shattered by his repeated misrepresentations and deceptive acts,” the lawsuit argues, “fueled by his animus toward [Trump] and his family members.”