(VitalNews.org) – Due to schedule constraints, former President Donald Trump dismissed a $500 million lawsuit against one of his former lawyers on Thursday, without prejudice, which will allow Trump to refile the lawsuit again when he has more time to focus on it.
In a statement issued to CBS News by Trump’s campaign, several reasons were listed for a “temporary pause” on pursuing Trump’s claims against Michael Cohen, which was filed Thursday.
Cohen once worked for Trump until the two had a falling out. Cohen then gave testimony to help New York Attorney General Letitia James build her $250 million civil lawsuit against the former president for fraud accusations. Last week, Trump voluntarily appeared in court three days in a row for the trial without a jury.
Cohen is also a key witness in the New York criminal case against Trump. After he was indicted in Manhattan for charges of falsifying business records, Trump filed the lawsuit against Cohen in April in a Florida federal court, accusing the lawyer of breaching his “fiduciary duty” and violating attorney-client privileges.
The reasons given by Trump’s campaign for dismissing the case until a later date are primarily schedule conflicts. His campaign said that because Trump is scheduled to sit for a deposition on Columbus Day for a civil matter, and has to fight “against meritless claims” in four separate indictments while “continuing his winning campaign,” the former president “decided to temporarily pause” his case against Cohen.
Last week, Trump was supposed to be deposed by Cohen’s lawyers, but that deposition was delayed so the former president could attend the first few days of the fraud trial brought against him by the New York Attorney General. The deposition happened over the weekend.
Cohen called the lawsuit a “retaliatory intimidation tactic” and that Trump’s “attempt to hide from routine discovery procedures” proves as much. The former Trump lawyer said the “cowardly dismissal” of the case “spells the end” of Trump’s “latest attempt” to stop Cohen from “providing truthful testimony” against the former president.
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