Attorneys for Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former longtime personal attorney, are expected to stop representing him, multiple outlets reported Wednesday.
McDermott, Will & Emery LLP, the law firm representing Cohen, “is not expected to represent him going forward,” according to ABC.
The New York Times said an issue with payment of legal bills prompted the change. Vanity Fair also reported payment was an issue, saying there has been disagreement over how much of Cohen’s legal bills the Trump Organization should pay.
Cohen’s legal team will stick with him until a review of more than 3.7 million documents seized from his offices and home in April is complete, the Times and Wall Street Journal reported. The deadline for that review is Friday.
The Times and Wall Street Journal both report Cohen will search for new legal counsel, but he could ultimately choose to cooperate with prosecutors.
The seizure of those documents led Trump to declare “Attorney-Client privilege is dead!” The search warrant for the raid originated from a referral by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to the Times, although the seizure of Cohen’s documents was not directly tied to Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.
Former federal Judge Barbara Jones was appointed to conduct a review of the seized materials to determine which were protected by attorney-client privilege. As of last week, only 162 of the items reviewed by Jones were considered privileged.
The seized documents related to several matters, including Trump’s payment to porn star Stephanie Clifford, who goes by Stormy Daniels. Cohen is under investigation for bank fraud, campaign-finance violations and other possible crimes.