Judge Releases Michael Cohen From Prison to Home Confinement, Says Prison Was Retaliation Over Trump Book

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, was released from prison to home confinement on July 23 after a judge ruled that Cohen was sent back to prison in retaliation for his pending book on Trump.

Cohen alleged in a July 20 lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) that he was sent back to prison from home confinement on July 9 because he refused to sign a document that would have prevented him from publishing books and talking to the media until his prison sentence ends. Cohen reportedly has a tell-all book on Trump coming out in September.

Judge Alvin Henderson sided with Cohen, ruling on July 23 that the language of the document that Cohen refused to sign implied that a return to prison would be a retaliatory measure.

“The purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory, and it’s retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media,” Hellerstein said. “I’ve never seen such a clause. In 21 years of being a judge and sentencing people and looking at terms and conditions of supervised release, I’ve never seen such a clause. How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?”

He did acknowledge that some restrictions on Cohen talking to the press could be warranted, noting that Cohen would still be serving a prison sentence in home confinement.

The prosecutors and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) denied that Cohen’s return to prison was a retaliatory measure. Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Rovner argued during the July 23 hearing that a probation officer first had presented the conditions of Cohen’s release from prison in May and that the officer wasn’t aware that Cohen had a book coming out in September. Cohen has claimed that he was open with prison officials and other inmates about his book.

A spokesperson for the BOP told The New York Times that it’s typical for those serving prison sentences to be restricted from contacting the media and that Cohen’s refusal to sign the document had nothing to do with his return to prison.

“Any assertion that the decision to remand Michael Cohen to prison was a retaliatory action is patently false,” the spokesperson added.

However, Hellerstein argued that the language of the document seemed to have the purpose of silencing Cohen and that he should have been given the chance to negotiate the matter. He also argued that Cohen never was told that he would be sent back to prison if he didn’t sign the document.

Cohen initially was released from prison to home confinement in May because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He officially will be released from prison again on July 24. Cohen’s lawyers and the BOP will negotiate the lifting of restrictions from the gag order.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2018 after pleading guilty to tax evasion. He also pleaded guilty for lying to the Senate regarding efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The former Trump lawyer also alleged his guilty plea that Trump directed him to arrange hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Trump has denied these allegations and has previously accused Cohen of lying to prosecutors in order to obtain a lighter prison sentence.

According to Cohen’s lawsuit against the DOJ, Cohen’s book will provide details of Trump uttering “certain anti-Semitic remarks against prominent Jewish people and virulently racist remarks against such Black leaders as President Barack Obama and [the late South African President] Nelson Mandela.”