Michael Cohen may try to call on Donald Trump Jr. at an upcoming trial in the fixer’s suit claiming Trump Organization should have to pay for the legal fees that piled up on the job.
The trial is set to start July 24 in Cohen’s civil case asserting the family real estate company reneged on its promise to cover him legally in various probes of then-President Donald Trump — including by Congress, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Cohen appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court Friday for the final hearing before trial, where he’ll be seeking nearly a million dollars in compensation for bills he racked up after Trump Org. stopped paying his legal costs.
During the hearing, Cohen lawyer Hunter Winstead said Don. Jr. would offer relevant testimony since he’s still in the family real estate company as CEO, and had to sign off on legal fees the company paid out.
“I’m not looking for a circus,” Winstead said. “I’m not looking to burden the court.”
But Winstead argued his client should be permitted to called the former first son to the witness stand to question him about his knowledge of the company’s agreement to indemnify Cohen.
Trump Org. lawyer Michael Farina countered that Cohen’s side was “trying to just sensationalize the trial” by calling such a high-profile official at Trump Org. when Cohen already has deposition testimony about the pact from Trump Org. executive vice president and chief legal officer Alan Garten.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joel Cohen said he wouldn’t bar calling Don Jr.
“He’s clearly a fact witness that — if you can legitimately get him here — there is no way I would preclude you from calling him as a witness,” Judge Cohen told Winstead.
Earlier in the hearing, Winstead said he might also call the embattled former president to testify if questions come up about the existence of the agreement that Cohen said was made orally.
The parties later concluded Trump wouldn’t needed to be called to testify because both sides would stipulate an agreement was struck in 2017.
Winstead told the judge that Cohen — executive vice president of the company for more than a decade –will testify at the trial, which is expected to last about a week.
Cohen stepped down from his position at the company and went on to become Trump’s personal lawyer until the feds raided his home, hotel room and office in April 2018. He served prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress, violating campaign finance law and tax evasion.
Jury selection is set to begin July 17.
The former president is also facing two criminal cases — a Florida federal case accusing him of hoarding classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago, and a Manhattan “hush money” case.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has a pending civil case against Trump and his company for alleged widespread fraud in business dealings.