The probation officer who was allegedly responsible for overseeing Michael Cohen while he was in home confinement said in a court filing Wednesday that Cohen was “combative” during the July 9 meeting that brought in the president’s former personal lawyer. to prison.
Cohen defendant This week he will be released back home, arguing that he was retaliated against for writing a book that would criticize President Trump.
But government attorneys said Wednesday that Cohen’s resistance to the terms of home confinement was the reason he was sent back to the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, which is located about 70 miles from the city of New York.
“During the meeting with the probation officers, [Cohen] He disagreed with almost all the provisions of the agreement related to the terms and conditions of his confinement in the home, “the filing says.” Rather, the petitioner was referred to FCI Otisville because of his defiant behavior during his meeting at the Probation Office on July 9, 2020, which included objecting to almost all of the LWF terms and conditions. [Federal Location Monitoring] Agreement that parole officers presented to you. “
the agreement Cohen’s request to sign included restrictions included in his writing and public appearances: “No engagement of any kind with the media, including print, television, film, book, or any other form of media / news,” it is read in the agreement.
The officer who drafted Cohen’s home confinement agreement, Adam Pakula, said he based the agreement on a sample obtained from a colleague with experience supervising high-profile inmates, and that he did not know that Cohen was writing a book. . Pakula detailed several of the objections Cohen raised regarding the conditions he would have to meet while serving his sentence from home.
“Although I knew Cohen was a high-profile inmate, at the time I drafted the LWF Agreement I did not know that Cohen was writing a book. I drafted the LWF Agreement without input from the BOP or anyone in the executive branch,” Pakula he said in an accompanying statement.
The court filing also said Cohen is “free to work on his book while incarcerated.”
Cohen’s lawsuit had said he was being held in solitary confinement. The government court filing said it was on a 14-day quarantine standard for all new inmates, which is intended to protect other inmates from possible infection. The filing says two of the 63 inmates are considered “active COVID-19 cases.”
The government court filing noted that Cohen had been seen dining in Manhattan restaurants, and said that while that was not a factor in his return to prison, it did undermine Cohen’s argument that he was concerned about his health.
In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced three years for campaign finance and financial crimes and lying to Congress about his involvement in an effort to build a “Trump Tower” in Moscow during the 2016 campaign.
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