Former fixer for Donald Trump, Michael Cohen claims that the former president’s “sprawling and baseless” litigation has “two aims” in his most recent attempt to get the $500 million lawsuit filed against him dismissed.
Donald Trump’s “Two Aims”
According to Cohen’s attorneys, those are “retaliating against Mr. Cohen, intimidating him, and deflecting attention away from Mr. Trump’s mounting and significant criminal exposure.” A 21-page legal brief was written by Benjamin H. Brodsky and Danya Perry. The intention was not to assert cognizable legal claims, as Mr. Trump does not plead each of his alleged claims’ basic parts. Cohen’s counsel has previously labeled Trump’s lawsuit “frivolous,” “scattershot,” and “ham-fisted,” arguing that it displays his “tattered old playbook.”
Alejandro Brito, Trump’s lawyer, scoffed earlier this month at what he called his opponents’ “caustic” remarks. By violating his employment and confidentiality obligations by disclosing the former president’s “confidences” and disseminating “falsehoods” about him, Cohen, according to Trump, caused him major reputational damage and did it with ill will and solely for one’s gain.
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Trump’s Inadequacy
Cohen’s attorneys sent Trump their final response on Thursday, and they didn’t let up in their colorful defense of how the former president’s $500 million lawsuit had serious flaws.
According to the brief, Mr. Trump’s arguments do not fare any better on the merits. He constantly cites the same conclusory accusations in the Complaint, which provide to highlight the deficiencies of his pleading, the illogicality of his legal theories, and the entirely hypothetical nature of his damages claims, rather than pointing to specific, factual allegations in the Complaint that would make his claims comprehensible.
The existence of the confidentiality agreement with Trump has previously been contested by Cohen’s attorneys. Although Trump filed his lawsuit in a federal court in Florida, they claim in the most recent brief that he agreed that it is regulated by New York law. The brief adds that Mr. Trump fails to establish any legal basis for seeking enforcement of the Confidentiality arrangement and pointedly refrains from claiming that he is a party to or even a third-party beneficiary of the arrangement.
A little more than a week after Cohen’s criminal indictment in New York, Trump sued Cohen. The remark about “mounting and serious criminal exposure” is about the long-awaited case brought by special counsel Jack Smith after the FBI seized secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The different allegations in Trump’s 37-count indictment accuse him of violating the Espionage Act, as well as multiple other people of attempting to obstruct justice and providing misleading information to authorities. Along with his assistant Walt Nauta, a veteran of the military, the former president was indicted.
The Southern District of Florida is the location of both Trump’s legal lawsuit against Cohen and the Justice Department’s prosecution of the former president.
An email asking for comment received no immediate response from Trump’s lawyer.
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