Michael Cohen account shared a petition calling on President Trump to release nonviolent prisoners to prevent the spread of the coronavirus behind bars.
A tweet Sunday from Trump’s former personal attorney linked to a Change.org petition advocating for the release nonviolent prisoners, like himself, to at-home confinement.
The creator of the petition argued that a release of nonviolent offenders would reduce crowding in facilities and prevent an outbreak that could drain the limited healthcare resources in prisons. In a message to the Bureau of Prisons, the petition also claimed reducing the prison population by releasing nonviolent prisoners will reduce the risk to prison staff safe during the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
“Without your intervention, scores of Non-Violent Offenders are at risk of death, and these people were not given a death sentence,” the petition said.
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) March 15, 2020
Cohen, who was known as Trump’s “fixer,” has been in prison in New York since May. He was sentenced to three years behind bars for campaign finance violations and bank and tax fraud. Cohen’s campaign finance violations were related to the “hush money” payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat, also called for sentences to be commuted for nonviolent offenders to stop a potential outbreak.
