While Donald Trump tries to dismiss or delay his several criminal cases as he stands trial for civil fraud in New York, the former president also just moved to dismiss (and maybe delay) a case that he brought. It’s Trump’s lawsuit against his former fixer Michael Cohen for allegedly breaching attorney-client privilege and confidentiality.
And why would Trump drop a case that he supposedly wanted in the first place?
And why would Trump drop a case that he supposedly wanted in the first place?
His filing Thursday doesn’t give a reason. But it comes just as he was about to be deposed by Cohen on Monday. The timing overlaps with Trump’s ongoing civil fraud trial, too; he had said he couldn’t be deposed earlier in the Cohen case because he was attending the fraud trial this week in New York. (In a statement, Cohen cited Trump’s “cowardly dismissal” of a case that was “nothing more than a retaliatory intimidation tactic.”)
Trump said in the brief filing that he was voluntarily dismissing the case “without prejudice,” meaning he wants to leave open the opportunity to try again in the future. A spokesperson said he would, claiming that Trump would pursue the matter again after he “has prevailed in dealing with the witch hunts against him.”
But even if you accept the tired “witch hunt” line, that framing doesn’t make much sense, because Trump filed the suit in April and has been fighting various legal battles all the while. He could have dropped the case at any point since then, so not having to sit for a deposition appears to be as good a reason as any. And whatever comes of Trump’s criminal and civil cases, they won’t likely be done any time soon, so, by his witch hunt logic, he can keep himself from relaunching the suit (and, perhaps more importantly to him, from being deposed) for the foreseeable future. In the end, while we wait to see how judges around the country handle Trump’s attempts to toss and push off his criminal cases, what might be said for this Cohen case is that it’s a rare one Trump was able to get rid of (even if it’s because he brought it). Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Blog newsletter for weekly updates on the top legal stories, including news from the Supreme Court, the Donald Trump prosecutions and more.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
Latest Post
Recommended
