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A Manhattan judge on Wednesday called Michael Cohen's former lawyer “embarrassing” and “negligent” after he accidentally included a fake AI-generated case in court documents. criticized.
In his damning ruling, Manhattan federal judge Jesse Fuhrman chose not to sanction Cohen and his then-lawyer David Schwartz for their failures, saying Schwartz had shown “extreme carelessness” but had not been honest. admitted that he had made a mistake.
“Citing an incident that does not exist is embarrassing, certainly negligent, and perhaps even grossly negligent,” Fuhrman wrote. “But the court cannot find that it was done with malicious intent.”
Mr. Cohen, Donald Trump's former “fixer” and lawyer, admitted that he mistakenly passed a non-existent lawsuit obtained from the artificial intelligence service Google Bird to Mr. Schwartz, who then submitted it to the court. Ta.
Although Mr. Schwartz no longer represents Mr. Cohen, his lawyer, former Judge Barry Cummins, told the Post on Wednesday that “the court has determined that this mistake was not made maliciously by Mr. Schwartz.'' I'm glad that happened,” he added.
Schwartz declined to comment, saying, “The content of the decision speaks for itself.”
The uproar comes as Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Cohen are trying to finalize a supervised release for Mr. Cohen, who pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and campaign finance violations in 2018.
Mr. Cohen was accused of these crimes and of lying to banks and Congress as part of the “hush money” payments he made on Mr. Trump's behalf to former porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougall. I admitted that.
A judge denied Cohen's motion to early dismiss his supervised release, admitting that he lied when he took the stand during Trump's Manhattan civil fraud trial and entered a guilty plea to tax evasion. It was later determined that he must have committed perjury.
“That opens up two possibilities. One is that Cohen committed perjury when he pleaded guilty before the judge.” [William] “Poley, or Cohen, committed perjury in his October 2023 testimony,” Fuhrman wrote.
Mr. Schwartz sought to use Mr. Cohen's testimony to support his early release, arguing that Mr. Cohen had shown a willingness to “truthfully explain his experiences.”
Schwartz also said it showed his “extraordinary level of remorse and commitment to upholding the law.”
Fuhrman said it was “perverse” for Schwartz to try to interpret the perjury as a “commitment to uphold the law,” given that Cohen admitted to perjury.
Mr. Cohen's lawyer, Danya Perry, said Mr. Furman's ruling was an “important victory” for Mr. Cohen, apparently referring to the fact that the judge did not impose sanctions.
But Perry said he “takes exception” to Fuhrman's inference that Cohen perjured himself, saying the defendant had committed a crime he did not commit because of a “forced plea deal under intense pressure.” He added that guilty pleas are not unusual.
“That's exactly what happened to Mr. Cohen.”
Mr. Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, praised Mr. Furman's decision for confirming “what we already know: that Michael Cohen committed perjury and should be prosecuted.”
The real estate mogul's legal team argues that Cohen's testimony to clients is unreliable because he is a known liar and a convicted felon.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office, which prosecuted Mr. Cohen, declined to comment.
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