Angela Weiss Agence France-Presse Former US President Donald Trump during the third day of his civil trial for fraud in a New York court on Wednesday
The former US President Donald Trump has dropped his charges against his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who became a prosecution witness in the case which will bring him to trial before the courts of the State of New York in 2024.
Donald Trump filed a complaint in April in federal court in Florida against the lawyer for breach of professional secrecy and the confidentiality contract between them, seeking $500 million in damages.
But in a legal document filed Thursday evening in this court, he announced that he was voluntarily withdrawing his complaint, without explanation.
“Rather than having to testify before me on Monday, Donald Trump voluntarily abandoned his $500 million damages lawsuit against our client Michael Cohen,” Danya Perry said in a statement released overnight. , Mr. Cohen's lawyer.
“Mr. Trump's cowardly renunciation marks the end of his latest attempt to dissuade me from providing truthful testimony against him,” said Michael Cohen. .
Just before the 2016 presidential election, the man who was then nicknamed “Donald Trump's pit bull” had paid 130,000 US dollars out of his own pocket to a pornographic film star, Stormy Daniels, so that she would keep quiet about a sexual relationship she said having had with his boss in 2016.
Following the revelation of this transaction by the Wall Street Journal in January 2018, the lawyer covered the president and assured never been reimbursed.
But the article aroused the interest of the justice system. Surrounded by investigators, who had discovered tax fraud in his accounts, Michael Cohen turned against Donald Trump, admitting to having received eleven checks to cover the expenses incurred with the porn star.
Or these payments were recorded as “legal fees” in the accounts of the Trump Organization, which led to Donald Trump being charged with “accounting falsification” by the justice system of the State of New York. The trial is scheduled for the end of March 2024.
The legal calendar promises to be busy for the Republican billionaire, who wants to reconquer the White House in a year.
His trial before a federal court in Washington for his allegedly unlawful attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election opens March 4.
He is also scheduled to stand trial in May in a Florida court for his negligent handling of documents confidential after his departure from the White House and at a date still undetermined by the justice system of the State of Georgia for his actions during the 2020 election.