Former Trump lawyer sues Trump Organization for unpaid legal fees, costs

Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former lawyer and "fixer," filed a lawsuit against the Trump organization on Thursday in New York, saying the company breached an agreement and owes him at least 1.9 million U.S. dollars in unpaid legal fees and other costs related to his work.

The lawsuit, filed in the Supreme Court of the state of New York in Manhattan, claimed that the Trump organization had agreed to indemnify legal fees and costs incurred by Cohen in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russian probe and multiple congressional hearings, among other matters.

But the company stopped paying the mounting attorneys' fees and other costs since May, 2018 when he reportedly indicated to family and close friends that he would cooperate with federal investigators. The unpaid fees and costs amounted to approximately 1.9 million dollars.

In addition, the lawsuit claimed the Trump organization should also pay another 1.9 million dollars 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 organization and its principals, directors, and officers."

The New York City-based Trump organization, a real estate group owned by President Trump, has not commented on the lawsuit yet.

Cohen pleaded guilty last year to charges that included campaign-finance violations for paying hush money to women who claimed to have had sex with Trump and for lying to Congress about the extent of negotiations for a Trump Tower in Russia. He was sentenced in December to three years in prison.

Trump has denied the claims and slammed Cohen as "a weak person" and the Russia probe as a "witch hunt."