Judge rules Trump Organization doesn't have to pay Michael Cohen's legal expenses
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/judge-rules-trump-organization-doesnt-have-to-pay-michael-cohens-legal-expenses
In a ruling more than two years after Cohen filed the lawsuit in 2019 in New York City, alleging Trump's business did not pay his legal bills up to a promised amount, Judge Joel Cohen determined that the blame was misplaced.
"Mr. 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," Joel Cohen wrote in his ruling, according to the Associated Press. "But not out of his service to the business of the Trump Organization, which is the only defendant in this case."
The lawsuit demanded $3.8 million, including $1.9 million in legal fees and $1.9 million Michael Cohen, who is not related to the judge, had to forfeit when he was sentenced to prison in 2018. It also claimed 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."
Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress about a planned Trump Tower project in Moscow as well as charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations for hush-money payments to two women during the 2016 campaign who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. Trump has denied those relationships. Michael Cohen, who has become a vocal critic of the former president, was sentenced to three years in federal prison but got out early and put into home confinement due to coronavirus concerns.