Attorney Blames Michael Cohen for Fake Cases in Court Filing

Legal counsel for Michael Cohen is blaming former President Donald Trump's fixer and another attorney for fake cases cited by artificial intelligence (AI), according to court records unsealed Friday.

A letter made public indicates that Cohen, as part of his efforts for early termination of his supervised release, sent attorney David Schwartz non-existent legal cases produced by Google's Bard AI program to help his argument. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and making false statements, and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Cohen is at the center of a legal case against Trump involving adult film star Stormy Daniels, whom Trump is alleged to have paid hush money prior to the 2016 presidential election to cover up an alleged affair. It was the first of four indictments against Trump, who has maintained his innocence in all cases and pleaded not guilty.

Cohen said in his sworn statement to the court and Judge Jesse Furman that he had not kept up with "emerging trends [and related risks] in legal technology and did not realize that Google Bard was a generative text service that, like ChatGPT, could show citations and descriptions that looked real but actually were not."

Schwartz, in his own declaration, said that he submitted a pro bono application on Cohen's behalf as part of his efforts on November 29. His first such request was submitted on July 6, 2022, a second on December 8, 2022, and a third on May 31, 2023.

He said that in his most recent draft that was shared with Cohen, he never cited any cases, saying that it was never his intention to include cited cases because he thought the facts and circumstances of Cohen's case were already strong enough.

Schwartz said that he believed that Danya Perry, a former U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, who is also a lawyer for Cohen, suggested inserting "a few in-district court cases" where judges granted early termination.

He said comments on the red-lined draft were labeled "DP," which he assumed meant they were suggested by Perry. A text from Cohen was also sent to Schwartz, with a notation reading, "Sent to me from Danya."

Drafts were subsequently sent back and forth between Cohen and Schwartz, the latter of whom said he had noticed three cases added to the letter and that he had "relied on her skills as an attorney" in the matter.

"I failed to review what I thought was the research of another attorney," Schwartz said. "I never contemplated that the cases were non-existent."

"My submission speaks for itself," Schwartz told Newsweek via email on Friday. "No other comment."

In a separate filing, Perry acknowledged the cases cited with AI and called Schwartz's retelling of events largely consistent with Cohen's recollection. She said Schwartz mistakenly filed the motion including the three cases and failed to check those citations or summaries.

"To be clear, Mr. Cohen did not know that the cases he identified were not real and, unlike his attorney, had no obligation to confirm as such," said Perry, who alerted the court when she realized the cases were fabricated.

Perry told Newsweek: "These filings—and the fact that he was willing to unseal them—show that Mr. Cohen did absolutely nothing wrong. He relied on his lawyer, David Schwartz, as he had every right to do. Unfortunately, Mr. Schwartz appears to have made an honest mistake in not verifying the citations in the brief he drafted and filed."

Update 12/29/23, 11:59 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Perry.