OAN’s Stephanie Stahl
5:44 PM – Friday, October 6, 2023
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has submitted a court filing to voluntarily withdraw his $500 million lawsuit against his former attorney, Michael Cohen.
In April, Trump initiated a lawsuit against Cohen, seeking damages of at least $500 million. The lawsuit alleged that Cohen disclosed confidential information, spread false information through books, podcasts, and media appearances, and damaged Trump’s reputation.
In the filing made in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Trump’s legal team stated, “Plaintiff, President Donald J. Trump, represented by the undersigned legal counsel, hereby provides notice of his voluntary dismissal of this lawsuit without prejudice.”
Cohen announced the development on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Back in May, Cohen had petitioned the court to dismiss the lawsuit, characterizing it as an “abusive act of pure retaliation and witness intimidation.” Cohen reiterated on Thursday that the lawsuit was merely a retaliatory intimidation tactic.
Trump had initiated the lawsuit against Cohen on April 12, eight days after pleading not guilty to 34 criminal charges filed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, stemming from accusations of a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election, which Trump eventually won. This marked the first of Trump’s four indictments.
The other three indictments were related to his alleged efforts to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory and his handling of classified documents following his departure from the White House. Trump pleaded not guilty in all of these cases.
A spokesperson for Trump reported that the former president was temporarily halting his legal battle with Cohen due to his involvement in other ongoing legal matters and planned to revisit his claims at a later time.
Later this month, Cohen is expected to testify as a witness for the New York attorney general’s office in Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York.
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