Michael Cohen's involvement with Donald Trump racked up his legal bills. He wants the Trump Org to pay them.

• Michael Cohen racked up millions of dollars in legal fees because of his involvement with Trump.
• Next week, he's taking the Trump Organization to trial to cover his bills.
• The legal bills involve cases ranging from the Mueller investigation to Stormy Daniels.

Former President Donald Trump has a knack for getting himself into legal trouble. He also has a knack for getting other people into legal trouble. And no one has been closer to the center of the blast radius than Michael Cohen.

Treating those metaphorical burn wounds has cost Cohen millions of dollars in legal fees. And after years of wrangling, he's finally taking the Trump Organization to court in an attempt to force it to pay the $1.3 million legal bill.

For over a decade, Cohen worked as an executive at the Trump Organization and as a personal lawyer for Trump, handling everything from co-op board negotiations to porn star payments.

While Trump avoided jail time as president, Cohen hasn't been so lucky. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to tax crimes and campaign finance violations in a criminal investigation that stemmed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's inquiry into Russia's interference in the 2016 election, and then again for lying to Congress. He served over a year in jail, plus more time under house arrest, and lost his law license.

In 2019, Cohen sued the Trump Organization, arguing his legal woes stemmed from his work for the company, which should therefore owe him legal fees. The case completed jury selection on Tuesday and opening statements are scheduled to begin on July 24. The trial is expected to span four days.

Here's what you need to know:

Cohen has a lot of legal fees

There's a long list of investigations, civil lawsuits, and criminal cases that have dogged Cohen because of his involvement with Trump.

His original lawsuit says the Trump Organization owes him money to pay for the lawyers he needed to represent him in 11 different cases, totaling about $2.3 million.

1. Litigation arising from payments made to Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
2. The federal criminal case he pleaded guilty to.
3. A House of Representatives oversight committee investigation.
4. A House intelligence committee investigation.
5. A House judiciary committee investigation.
6. A Senate intelligence committee investigation.
7. A Senate judiciary committee investigation.
8. Litigation from a dispute over possibly privileged evidence seized by the FBI during raids on his home and office.
9. The Mueller investigation.
10. The New York Attorney General investigation into Trump's charities.
11. This lawsuit you're reading about right now.

Before Cohen became publicly critical of Trump, in 2018, the company had been paying his legal bills. It paid $1.7 million in legal fees for various investigations, and then an additional $250,000 to a law firm representing Cohen after his residence was raided by the FBI, his lawsuit says. Cohen says the payments were part of an indemnification agreement he made with the company.

Around June 2018, Cohen began cooperating with the FBI and was no longer represented by the firm the Trump Organization had been paying. From that point on, Cohen says in his lawsuit, the legal bills kept piling up, but the company wasn't paying them.

In its court filings, the Trump Organization claims it doesn't owe Cohen another cent because his actions that led to legal trouble were either outside his job description, not in the company's "best interests," or his requested fees were unreasonable.

Cohen was asking for a "blank check" to have legal costs covered "during the federal investigations of Plaintiff's personal crimes of greed," lawyers for the Trump Organization wrote in one filing.

"We believe that his cooperation, his actions, his acting in his own personal interest, terminated any Oral Agreement that might have existed for indemnification related at this point," one of the Trump Organization's lawyers said at a hearing earlier this month.

In addition to campaign finance violations related to the Stormy Daniels payments, Cohen also pleaded guilty to unrelated charges that he evaded taxes and lied to get a bank loan. He isn't seeking repayment for legal fees related to those crimes.

Some fees have also been dropped. Since Cohen first filed his lawsuit four years ago, the Trump Organization has come to agreements with several law firms to satisfy their bills. He's owed another $1.3 million, his lawyers say.

Will Trump be at the trial?

Donald? Nah. He's not gonna take the stand. But we'll get the second-best thing: Donald Trump Jr.

Daddy Trump isn't obligated to show up. He isn't a party in the case — Cohen named the Trump Organization as the defendant — and wasn't named as a witness either. And even if he was a defendant, it's a civil, not a criminal case, so he wouldn't be required to be in court.

Cohen's lawyers initially wanted to call Trump as a witness to testify about an oral agreement to pay Cohen's legal fees, but Judge Joel Cohen (no relation) said in a hearing earlier this month that it wasn't necessary because the Trump Organization didn't contest the existence of that agreement.

Trump Organization lawyers have agreed to produce Donald Trump Jr., an executive at the Trump Organization, as a witness in the case. Judge Cohen said he would be required to testify, despite objections from the company's lawyers.

"I understand from years of practice the importance of defending the King, the King being the CEO, I just don't
think it works here," Judge Cohen said at the hearing.

Hunter Winstead, one of Michael Cohen's lawyers, said at the hearing this month that Donald Trump Jr. approved some legal fees for Cohen. He also said the Trump Organization paid for $1 million of Donald Trump Jr.'s own legal fees for the same issues Cohen is seeking payment.

Donald Trump Jr. is expected to testify on Monday or Tuesday, or both, according to a letter filed by Trump Organization lawyers ahead of the trial.

Alan Garten, a longtime lawyer for the Trump Organization, is also expected to testify in the case. Deposition videos will be played for Jay Sekulow and Alan Futerfas, two personal lawyers for Donald Trump.

Michael Cohen will, of course, also take the stand.

This sounds messy — isn't Cohen a star witness in one of Trump's criminal cases?

Yes! This case intersects with the Manhattan district attorney's criminal case against Trump, who is also running to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.

In April, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 charges of falsifying business records with payments made to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet ahead of the 2016 election about an affair she says she had with Trump.

Cohen played the middleman role, making the payments and getting reimbursed by the Trump Organization. He's one of the most important witnesses in the case. He testified before the grand jury for several days and is expected to testify in the trial, which is scheduled for March.

Cohen's lawsuit argues that Trump should foot the bill for the entire legal mess on both ends: not just defending Trump, but also paying for Cohen.

Isn't Trump also suing Cohen?

Less than a week after his indictment in Manhattan, Trump sued Cohen. His lawsuit, filed in Florida federal court and asking for $500 million in damages, says Cohen breached attorney-client confidentiality and ruined his reputation.

Cohen's lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the case.

Oy. Sounds like Trump has a lot of legal problems.

In addition to this Cohen trial, he's dealing with being a target in Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith's January 6 investigation, an expected indictment in the next month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, a federal indictment in Florida over his handling of government records, the aforementioned Manhattan district attorney indictment, and a number of other cases and investigations.