Michael Cohen files lawsuit against Trump Organization for failing to cover legal expenses

Only a day after returning to Capitol Hill for a closed-door Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, attorney Michael Cohen has filed a lawsuit against the company he spent more than a decade working for: the Trump Organization.

Early Thursday afternoon, March 7, the 52-year-old Cohen filed his lawsuit—alleging that when he was President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and fixer, the Trump Organization failed to cover legal expenses he incurred as a result of working for The Donald.

Cohen’s lawsuit, filed with the New York State Supreme Court, gets into the Trump-related investigations he got caught up in—including Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.

Cohen, in the filing, alleges that the Trump Organization “agreed to indemnify Mr. Cohen and to pay attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by Mr. Cohen in connection with various matters arising from Mr. Cohen’s work with and on behalf of the Organization and its principals, directors and officers. These matters included multiple congressional hearings, Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, and others.”

The 22-page filing alleges, “As a result of the Trump Organization’s unfounded refusal to meet its indemnification obligations under the indemnification agreement, Mr. Cohen has incurred millions of dollars in unreimbursed attorneys’ fees and costs” and “continues to incur attorneys’ fees and costs in connection with various ongoing investigations and litigation.”

Cohen, in his lawsuit, notes that the Trump Organization continued to pay his legal expenses “through at least May of 2018” but alleges that in June 2018, the company quit paying them “without notice or justification.”

Cohen’s lawsuit outlines some of the expenses he incurred as Trump’s fixer—such as hush money payments to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, a.k.a. Stormy Daniels, who alleges that she had an extramarital affair with Trump and was paid to keep quiet. When Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee on February 27, he alleged that he went out of pocket to pay Daniels hush money and expected to be repaid by the Trump Organization—and that the checks from the Trump Organization that Cohen showed members of Congress were repayment for money he paid to Daniels.