Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, filed a lawsuit Thursday in New York City against his one-time boss's real estate business over unpaid legal bills.
In a civil complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Cohen accused the Trump Organization of breaking a promise made in July 2017 to pay his legal bills while he was still employed by Trump.
Cohen claims he's owed $1.9 million to cover attorneys' fees and other related costs.
"As a result of the Trump Organization's unfounded refusal to meet its indemnification obligations under the indemnification agreement, Mr. Cohen has incurred millions of dollars in unreimbursed attorneys' fees and costs," according to Cohen's lawsuit.
Last week, Cohen testified before the House Oversight Committee and accused the president of a slew of misdeeds, including a hush-money payoff to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
In the lawsuit, Cohen calls himself Trump's "fixer" and repeated claims that he took care of the Daniels payment and a similar one to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who has claimed she had an affair with Trump, and negotiated for a Trump property in Moscow as late as summer 2016.
Cohen claimed that the Trump Organization initially made good on its commitment and paid $137,460 to his lawyers on Oct. 25, 2017, according to the lawsuit.
But by December 2017, the Trump Organization stopped making additional attorney payments, all while Cohen was facing multiple overdue invoices for his legal representation, the lawsuit claimed.
Cohen at that time made "a direct appeal to Trump Organization executives Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump by Mr. Cohen regarding the Organization’s repeated delays in paying his attorneys’ fees and expenses," the lawsuit said.
Those overtures led to payments being made again, Cohen's complaint said.
And then "in or around June 2018, the Trump Organization ceased to pay" Cohen's lawyers "without notice or justification," the lawsuit claimed.
Cohen has already been sentenced to three years behind bars after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. He is scheduled to begin his sentence on May 6.
Representatives for the Trump Organization could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday.
