NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen on Friday got the green light to subpoena his ex-boss’ eldest son in his upcoming case against the Trump Organization.
Cohen is suing Trump’s company for refusing to shell out at least $1.9 million as promised to law firms that represented him starting in 2017 when he was probed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the FBI, various congressional investigations, and the Manhattan district attorney’s Trump investigation.
Trump’s longtime right-hand man, convicted in 2018 of issuing an illegal hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels on his behalf ahead of the 2016 election, says Trump closed his wallet when he realized his fixer had flipped.
At a pretrial hearing, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen denied several motions from the Trump Organization. He sided with Michael Cohen in ruling that he can call Donald Jr. as a witness at the upcoming breach of contract trial slated to begin on July 17 and expected to last four days.
Trump will not attend or testify.
Cohen’s lawyer Hunter Winstead argued that Trump Jr. had the same agreement with his father’s company that he did, wherein the Trump Organization would foot the bill for attorneys’ fees if he ran into legal issues.
“There’s been evidence induced in this case that in the exact same matters for which Mr. Cohen is seeking (compensation) in this case, the company paid the legal bills of Mr. Trump Jr.,” Winstead told The New York Daily News.
“It’s also been testified to in this case that Mr. Trump Jr. was one of the decision makers regarding whose lawyers got paid and whose lawyers did not get paid.”
Cohen, who filed suit in 2019, is involved in countless legal battles with Trump. He’s expected to be the star witness in the ex-president’s “hush money” case headed to trial next March, in which Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies.
“Four years. It has taken four years to get to where we’re at, which is endemic of Donald Trump’s playbook of delay, delay, delay,” Cohen said. “I’m looking forward to accountability.”
Lawyers for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
