Michael Cohen is suing Attorney General William Barr in an attempt to get another ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card.’
The American Civil Liberties Union and law firm Perry Guha LLP filed the lawsuit Monday in the District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of Cohen, seeking his immediate release from prison. Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, has been in solitary confinement since he was brought back to federal prison on July 9.
The lawsuit, also filed against Michael Carvajal, the director of the Bureau of Prisons, and James Petrucci, the warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, alleges that July 2 tweet in which Cohen announced he was finishing his book about the president was the impetus for federal officers demanding he sign an agreement barring him from exercising his “right to speak to or through any media, including books and social media.”
“On July 9, 2020, U.S. Probation Officers, working on behalf of the BOP, presented Mr. Cohen with an unconstitutional demand: As a condition of his release — a release BOP already had determined was necessary to protect Mr. Cohen’s health — he had to agree to a complete bar on speaking to or through any media of any sort, including via a book,” the lawsuit said.
When Cohen, 53, asked for “clarification on what precisely the condition prohibited,” federal officers arrested him and brought him back to prison “within two hours,” the ACLU said.
At the time of his reimprisonment, the Bureau of Prisons released a statement that said, “Today, Michael Cohen refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility.”
Cohen was granted release from federal prison to home confinement in late May as the Justice Department sought to stem the spread of the coronavirus among inmates. The ACLU said he “severe hypertension and a history of respiratory issues,” thus making him “highly vulnerable to severe illness or death due to COVID-19.”
The president’s former lawyer was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty in August 2018 to eight criminal charges, including bank fraud, tax fraud, and campaign finance violations related to facilitating hush-money payments to two women who alleged that they had romantic affairs with Trump.
