Reuters/Stephanie Keith
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer who has been in the middle of a legal battle this week over documents seized by the FBI, has dropped the two libel suits he filed against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS. The suits centered around the now-notorious Steele dossier, which detailed Trump’s alleged connections with Russia, an infamous “pee tape”—footage that allegedly shows Trump watching Russian prostitutes urinate on a bed President Obama slept in at a Moscow hotel room—and an alleged Cohen meeting with Russian operatives in Prague in the summer of 2016, which he has denied. “The decision to voluntarily discontinue these cases was a difficult one,” Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz, told Politico. “We believe the defendants defamed my client, and vindicating Mr. Cohen’s rights was—and still remains—important. But given the events that have unfolded, and the time, attention, and resources needed to prosecute these matters, we have dismissed the matters, despite their merits.”