A Former Trump Lawyer, Michael Cohen, Says He Unwittingly Sent AI-Generated Fake Legal Cases to His Attorney

Cohen says he found the citations by doing research through Google Bard and was unaware that the service could generate nonexistent cases.

AP/Stefan Jeremiah, file
Michael Cohen at New York supreme court, October 24, 2023. AP/Stefan Jeremiah, file

President Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, says he unwittingly passed along to his attorney bogus artificial intelligence-generated legal case citations he got online before they were submitted to a judge.

Cohen made the admission in a court filing unsealed Friday at Manhattan federal court after a judge earlier this month asked a lawyer to explain how court rulings that do not exist were cited in a motion submitted on Cohen’s behalf. Judge Jesse Furman had also asked what role, if any, Cohen played in drafting the motion.

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