Michael Cohen and the Trump Organization just cut a deal to settle his lawsuit over unpaid legal bills
- Michael Cohen and the Trump Organization cut a deal to settle his lawsuit.
- The terms are confidential, the lawyers said in a Friday morning court hearing.
The Trump Organization cut a deal with Michael Cohen to settle his $1.3 million lawsuit.
It's not clear how much money the Trump Organization paid to settle the case. The terms are confidential, lawyers for both parties said in a court hearing Friday morning.
"The parties reached agreement on confidential terms last night," Cohen's lawyer Hunter Winstead said at the hearing.
Cohen — Donald Trump's former "fixer" and personal lawyer and a former executive at the Trump Organization — sued the company in New York state court in 2019.
He alleged the Trump Organization should have covered legal fees for his role in various scandals, lawsuits, and investigations that stemmed from his work for Trump.
Jurors were selected and sworn in earlier this week, with the case set to go to trial on Monday.
"Thank you for letting us know, and for keeping us in suspense up until the almost last moment," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen told the lawyers at the hearing.
Cohen's lawsuit alleged that the Trump Organization owed him a total of $2.3 million to pay the lawyers he needed to represent him in 11 different cases and investigations:
- Litigation arising from payments made to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
- The federal criminal case he pleaded guilty to over Stormy Daniels and lying to Congress.
- A House of Representatives oversight committee investigation.
- A House intelligence committee investigation.
- A House judiciary committee investigation.
- A Senate intelligence committee investigation.
- A Senate judiciary committee investigation.
- Litigation from a dispute over possibly privileged evidence seized by the FBI during raids on his home and office.
- The Mueller investigation.
- The New York Attorney General investigation into Trump's charities.
- This lawsuit.
In the four years since he first filed the case, some fees have been whittled down, and the Trump Organization has cut deals with some law firms to satisfy their bills, court filings show.
Cohen claimed the company still owed him an outstanding $1.3 million by the time it was headed to trial.
"This matter has been resolved in a manner satisfactory to all parties," he told Insider in a text message Friday.
Donald Trump was not expected to show up at the trial, which was scheduled to last four days.
But his son Donald Trump Jr., an executive at the Trump Organization, had agreed to show up as a witness. Cohen's lawyers argued that Trump Jr. had knowledge of the agreement between Cohen and the Trump Organization to cover legal bills and that his own legal bills were covered for some of the same investigations.
Cohen will soon have another chance to be a thorn in Trump's side. He's expected to be a significant witness in Trump's Manhattan criminal trial next year over hush-money payments made to Daniels.
This story has been updated.