Cohen sues Trump Organisation for breaking pledge to pay legal fees

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen is suing the Trump Organisation for breaking a promise to pay his legal bills.

A lawsuit filed in New York says the organisation owes at least 1.9 million dollars (£1.45m) to cover his defence costs.

The lawsuit claims the Trump Organisation stopped paying Cohen’s legal fees after he began cooperating with federal prosecutors in their investigations related to Mr Trump’s business dealings in Russia and attempts to silence women with embarrassing stories about his personal life.

It alleges breach of contract and seeks damages on Cohen’s behalf.

The lawsuit says the company stopped paying for his legal defence about two months after the FBI raided Cohen’s home and office last year.

It says that was around the time Cohen began discussing privately with friends and family that he was considering cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York.

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to tax crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations. He is expected to begin serving a three-year prison term in May.

The lawsuit said that as part of his work for Mr Trump, the company agreed to indemnify him for his company-related work. It said the Trump Organisation initially lived up to that promise, footing the bill for more than 1.7 million dollars (£1.3m) in Cohen’s legal fees.

Cohen hired the law firm McDermott Will & Emery in spring 2017 after it became clear he was a “person of interest” in Mr Mueller’s investigation.

That firm withdrew from his case late last spring after the Trump Organisation stopped paying Cohen’s bills, a withdrawal the lawsuit says “prejudiced” Cohen’s ability to respond to the federal investigations.

In addition to the legal fees Cohen is seeking, the lawsuit claims the Trump Organisation should also pay the $1.9 million Cohen was ordered to forfeit “as part of his criminal sentence arising from conduct undertaken by Mr Cohen in furtherance of and at the behest of the Trump Organisation and its principals, directors, and officers”.

Cohen was one of Mr Trump’s lawyers and closest advisers for a decade until their public split last summer.

After once bragging that he would “take a bullet” for the president, Cohen met with federal prosecutors in New York and with the office of special counsel Mr Mueller, telling them he had lied to Congress to protect Mr Trump and paid off two women to keep them from speaking out about alleged affairs.

Earlier this year, Cohen hired two new Chicago lawyers and parted ways with the attorneys who represented him for months as he cooperated with Mr Mueller and prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

Cohen told Congress that Trump was a racist, a liar and a con man.

Mr Trump, in turn, has assailed Cohen as a “rat” and a “serial liar”.