Michael Cohen reaches settlement with Trump Organization in dispute over unpaid legal bills
By Kara Scannell, CNN
(CNN) — Michael Cohen reached a settlement with the Trump Organization in a dispute over nearly $1 million in unpaid legal bills, averting a civil trial set for Monday.
During a court hearing Friday, lawyers for Cohen and the Trump Organization announced they reached the settlement and said the terms were “confidential.”
Cohen sued the Trump Organization in 2019 alleging that he had agreements – both written and oral – that his legal bills would be paid in connection to numerous investigations, but the real estate business stopped funding those bills when he split from Trump and began cooperating against them.
The Trump Organization said it covered Cohen’s legitimate bills but says he is not indemnified for voluntary cooperation he gave following his guilty plea for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations and other crimes.
“Here, Plaintiff’s involvement arose and occurred because of his own initiative, and his own predicament, resulting from his own misconduct, and was undertaken for his own purposes,” the Trump lawyers wrote in court filings.
“These actions – the crimes, and the cooperation – defeated the purpose of, and thus effectively terminated, any oral agreement that might have existed for indemnification,” Trump attorneys wrote.
Jurors were selected and sworn in this week. Opening statements were set for Monday and the trial, which was expected to include testimony from Cohen and Donald Trump Jr. – but not the former president – was expected to last about a week.
Cohen told CNN, “This matter has been resolved in a matter satisfactory to all parties.”
Hunter Winstead, a lawyer for Cohen said, “Our understanding is a recitation of the terms openly would not be consistent with the parties’ agreement.”
CNN has reached out to the Trump Organization.
Winstead said to the judge, “We’ll take this off your docket. I know you’ll be heartbroken.”
Judge Joel Cohen retorted, “I’ll be neither heartbroken or heartwarmed. Our job is to resolve disputes – that’s good enough for me.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
The-CNN-Wire
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