Attorneys for Donald Trump are pressing the courts to force Letitia James to hand over every communication her office had with former Trump attorney Michael Cohen—after Cohen dropped a stunning claim that prosecutors pressured him to testify against the president.

The demand was laid out in a 25-page court filing Wednesday, as Trump’s legal team escalates its battle over the controversial New York civil fraud case.

The timing is critical. Trump’s attorneys are preparing to file a response with the New York State Court of Appeals next month after the New York attorney general asked the court to restore a nearly half-billion-dollar civil fraud penalty that had been tossed out last August.

Trump’s lawyers say they now need a full accounting of communications between Cohen and the attorney general’s office.

The filing asks the court to order production of “all records of all communications between Michael D. Cohen” and the attorney general or her staff. That includes interview transcripts, notes, emails, letters, recordings and any other documents tied to their interactions.

According to the filing, Cohen’s testimony sat “at the heart of the NYAG’s case.” Trump’s attorneys argue that his statements helped spark the investigation into Trump, his family and the Trump Organization.

Because of that central role, they say any communications between Cohen and prosecutors are “vital” as they weigh whether to ask the court to throw out the judgment entirely.

The lawyers are also asking for confirmation that the attorney general’s office has taken steps to preserve every record related to Cohen until all litigation tied to the case is finished.

The push for documents follows a dramatic claim Cohen published Jan. 16 in a Substack post. In it, he alleged he was effectively pushed by prosecutors to give testimony damaging to Trump.

Cohen wrote:

“I felt compelled and coerced to deliver what they were seeking. Letitia James and Alvin Bragg may not share the same office or political calendar, but they share the same playbook.”

He went further, describing pressure during meetings with prosecutors.

“From the time I first began meeting with lawyers from the Manhattan DA’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office in connection with their investigations of President Trump, and through the trials themselves, I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump.”

The Manhattan prosecutor Cohen referenced is Alvin Bragg, the district attorney who brought the separate “hush money” criminal case against Trump.

During the civil fraud proceedings, Cohen testified that he worked with former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to inflate property valuations on financial statements.

But in his Substack piece, Cohen suggested investigators had made clear what kind of testimony they wanted from him.

According to Cohen, the attorney general’s team “made clear that the testimony they wanted from me was testimony [that] would go after President Trump.”

Trump’s attorneys say such records would have been crucial during the trial. They argued the communications “would have been vital for Defendants to use in cross-examining” Cohen in court. Yet, according to the filing, the attorney general’s office never turned over any records related to its meetings with Cohen—even though Trump’s team says they formally requested them.

Since Cohen’s Substack article was published, Trump’s lawyers say they again demanded all such records but have received nothing. The legal filing claims the attorney general’s office gave what Trump’s team described as an “untenable” response. According to the attorneys, the office has claimed it does not know whether any Cohen records even exist—despite Cohen serving as a key witness.

The filing also states the office declined to spend time checking whether such records are in its possession, allegedly arguing that the discovery phase of the case has already ended.

Trump’s lawyers say that position raises another concern: the possibility that communications could be automatically deleted or purged if steps aren’t taken to preserve them. They warn that the attorney general has so far been “unwilling to take any steps” to confirm the records are being safeguarded as the legal fight continues.