Boost for Trump as Cohen loses fees case and Zervos drops defamation
Donald Trump saw his former campaign chair and White House strategist Steve Bannon indicted on Friday, for contempt of Congress over the Capitol attack. But the former president also received two slices of good news from courts in New York.
In one development, Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Trump’s TV reality show who accused him of sexual assault, dropped her defamation lawsuit against him.
In another, a judge said the Trump Organization did not need to pay millions in legal bills to Trump’s former fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen.
Cohen sued the Trump Organization for failing to make good on a promise to pay legal costs resulting from his work. But on Friday a judge said Cohen had failed to prove the bills he incurred amid a criminal investigation and other lawsuits were related to conduct as an employee of the Trump Organization.
The alleged missed reimbursements included $1.9m for legal fees and costs, plus another $1.9m related to Cohen’s criminal case, according to Cohen’s 2019 complaint.
“In a nutshell, Mr Cohen’s legal fees arise out of his (sometimes unlawful) service to Mr Trump personally, to Mr Trump’s campaign, and to the Trump Foundation, but not out of his service to the business of the Trump Organization,” the judge said.
Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, said the decision was “unfair”. He also linked to a crowdfunding account in support of Cohen.
A longtime employee, Cohen became a critic of Trump while he was president, testifying that Trump directed him to break the law. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison for his role in illegal hush-money payments to women to help Trump’s 2016 campaign and lying to Congress about a project in Russia.
Cohen has written a memoir and hosts a politics podcast and is close to completing his sentence under home confinement.
On Friday he tweeted: “Despite over 300 hours of cooperation and ‘CONTINUING’”, New York prosecutors, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the US justice department were “riding me ‘door to door’ on a matter they refused to bring against [Trump]. Another ‘9’ more days and done!”
Zervos is a former contestant on The Apprentice, the show Trump fronted for NBC before entering politics. She sued in New York state court in 2017, saying the then president had damaged her reputation when he said she and other women alleging sexual assault and harassment were making things up.
Friday’s filing said the case was dismissed and discontinued with prejudice, meaning Zervos cannot file the same claim in state court in the future. The filing also said each party was responsible for its own costs.
Zervos accused Trump of kissing and groping her against her will in 2007, an allegation she detailed during the 2016 election. He denied it.
On Friday, the attorneys Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza said: “After five years, Ms Zervos no longer wishes to litigate against the defendant and has secured the right to speak freely about her…
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