This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Lawyer Michael Cohen, who once represented Donald Trump and was part of the administration of Trump's corporate empire, later was jailed for campaign finance violations and fraud, as well as lying to congressional committees.

He's now out of prison and prosecutors in New York have schemed to use his testimony against Trump in their effort to find a conviction and keep Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot.

But Cohen's plan to rebuild his life has hit a bump. And it might affect his testimony.

It seems in filings in his own case, in which he's seeking an end to supervision for his own offenses, the judge found what apparently were AI-fabricated case citations.

According to a report published by RedState, "Cohen, the lawyer they're hoping to use against former President Donald Trump in the criminal case in Manhattan, was caught using AI for citations that he gave his attorney that were then used in a motion filed with a federal judge."

The report said Cohen explained it as a mistake because he "didn't understand how to use Google Bard, which generated the false citations."

Cohen told the court "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,'" the report said.

Further, he didn't expect the lawyer representing him, David M. Schwartz, to "drop the cases into his submission wholesale without even confirming that they existed."

The situation began because the judge said he couldn't find three of the cases cited, and ordered Schwartz to produce them or explain how the fabrications were included in a court filing.

Schwartz told the judge he didn't check them because he thought they came from another lawyer working with Cohen.

"If I had believed that Mr. Cohen had found these cases, I would have researched them. It was my belief, however, that Mr. Cohen had sent me cases found by Ms. [Danya] Perry," Schwartz said.

Explained RedState, "Read that again. It's hilarious. He didn't check because he thought it was from Perry. But if he knew it was from Cohen, he would have checked. In other words, he wouldn't have trusted Cohen. Not exactly a helpful comment there, but now Schwartz is on the hook for all this mess."

The judge is requiring explanations by Jan. 3.

And, RedState noted, "The revelation could have serious implications for the Manhattan criminal case against Mr. Trump, in which Mr. Cohen is expected to serve as the star witness. The former president’s lawyers have long attacked Mr. Cohen as a serial fabulist; now, they will have a brand-new example."