Trump Is In Settlement Talks With Michael Cohen

Donald Trump and his onetime attorney, Michael Cohen, have been at war in public, sparring on social media, on cable news and in court, where the former president recently sued Cohen for $500 million. Out of the public eye, however, their teams have been engaging in settlement talks.

They aren’t going to make peace over everything. But they appear to be nearing common ground in a case that has its origins in mid-2017, when Cohen says he entered into an agreement with the Trump Organization for the firm to cover his legal fees in connection with investigations into the 2016 election and lawsuits filed by Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, two women who have claimed they had affairs with Trump. In April 2018, the FBI searched Cohen’s office. Shortly thereafter, he says, the Trump Organization stopped paying his legal bills.

In March 2019, Cohen sued the Trump Organization in New York state Supreme Court, alleging that the firm had not fulfilled its contractual agreement and seeking $3.8 million in reimbursement for his legal fees and other costs. The judge dismissed the suit in November 2021, finding that “Cohen’s legal fees arise out of his (sometimes unlawful) service to Mr. Trump personally, to Mr. Trump’s campaign and to the Trump Foundation, but not out of his service to the business of the Trump Organization, which is the only defendant in this case.”

Cohen appealed. The appellate court ruled last November, in a 5-0 decision, that the trial judge had erred in dismissing the case. That sent the parties back to the negotiating table. In March, the two sides informed the court they “met and conferred on a preferred settlement track and request to proceed to a mandatory settlement conference via private mediation.”

When asked about all of this, Cohen directed inquiries to his attorney, who did not respond. Representatives of the Trump Organization also did not respond to requests for comment.