Donald Trump worried filings in case against his ex-lawyer could incriminate him: report
Donald Trump in court filings on Wednesday sought legal protection from having to make documents in a lawsuit against his former lawyer Michael Cohen public, citing potential self-incrimination concerns, Bloomberg News reports.
Trump in April filed a $500 million lawsuit against Cohen alleging his former lawyer breached his contract.
Trump’s court filing on Wednesday cited Trump’s ongoing legal matters for keeping the documents confidential and Cohen wants the documents to be made public, the report said.
Trump attorney Alejandro Brito in the court filing argued that Cohen “has already requested documents that interfere with and/or relate to the pending criminal proceedings and the underlying facts that form the basis of such criminal proceedings,” and that “The existence of the criminal proceedings currently ongoing against the Plaintiff establishes ‘good cause’ for the entry of the confidentiality order due to the risk of self-incrimination.”
Cohen told Bloomberg News that he needed all the documents to defend himself against a lawsuit he said was “frivolous and retaliatory.”
“If Donald was concerned that release of this information could or will cause him damage in the ongoing criminal investigations, he should have thought twice about bringing the lawsuit in the first place,” Cohen said.
“You can’t have it both ways.”