Former President Trump has abruptly dropped a federal lawsuit he filed against Michael Cohen, his former "fixer," earlier this year. Trump had sought more than $500 million in damages from Cohen, claiming he had "spread falsehoods" about him. Trump had been ordered to sit for a deposition in the lawsuit on Monday. A one-line court filing from a Trump lawyer late Thursday said the case was being dismissed "without prejudice," meaning it could be refiled at a later date, Politico reports. A statement from a Trump spokesperson suggested that the former president is currently too busy with multiple criminal trials and a presidential campaign.
Trump has "decided to temporarily pause his meritorious claims" against Cohen, the spokesperson said, added that Trump will continue to pursue the claims once he has "prevailed in dealing with the witch hunts against him." Sources tell the New York Times that Trump advisers had been worried he would say something under oath in the deposition that could be used in one of the four criminal cases against him. Cohen is expected to be a key witness in one of them, the Stormy Daniels hush money case. He is also expected to testify in the New York civil fraud case against Trump, possibly as soon as next week.
A video of Cohen describing how Trump had inflated the value of assets was played in the New York trial last week, and Trump "appeared visibly angry upon seeing his former fixer," the Times reports. In a statement Thursday, Cohen described the dismissal of the case as "cowardly." "As I have said from the beginning, this case was nothing more than a retaliatory intimidation tactic, and his attempt to hide from routine discovery procedures confirms as much," Cohen said. (More Michael Cohen stories.)
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