Former Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Admits Using Google Bard To Cite Fictional Cases In Legal Submission

Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has admitted to using Google Bard to cite non-existent legal cases to his legal counsel, David M. Schwartz, who then relayed these cases in submissions to a federal court.

What Happened: Cohen acknowledged in freshly unsealed court documents that he provided his lawyer with papers citing fictitious cases, reported The New York Times.

Post the submission of these documents by Cohen’s lawyer Schwartz, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman had trouble locating the three cases mentioned.

Cohen has now admitted in a sworn statement that he was not up-to-date with "emerging trends (and related risks) in legal technology."

Cohen claimed not to know that Google Bard was “a generative text service that could show citations and descriptions that looked real but actually were not.”

He also blamed his lawyer, stating that he was unaware Schwartz would use the cases "without even confirming that they existed."

Why It Matters: This case was reminiscent of a June incident where two lawyers and their law firm were fined $5,000 by a federal judge in New York City for presenting a brief with fictitious cases.

Cohen is currently on supervised release after admitting to campaign finance violations and bank and tax fraud in 2018. Perry, who is now Cohen's representative, thinks that there are numerous cases that back Cohen's appeal for an end to supervised release.

The document was part of an effort to terminate Cohen’s supervised release early, stemming from his 2018 charges of tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

Cohen has served a little more than a year of a three-year prison term.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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