Lawyers for Michael Cohen
Michael Dean Cohen Expelled Manhattan Attorney Geoffrey Berman to teach at Stanford Davis: Supreme Court decision is bad news for Trump, good news for Vance Nadler: Barr’s dealings with Berman were ‘very close to bribery’ MORE He filed a petition Monday night seeking his immediate release from jail, alleging that he was brought back to prison in retaliation for a book he is writing about his time working for President Trump
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The petition was filed by attorneys from the firm Perry Guha and the American Civil Liberties Union against the Attorney General William Barr
Bill BarrHouse Republicans Urge Trump To Take Action Against Chinese Hackers Targeting Coronavirus Investigation Juan Williams: We Must Not Fall Asleep To Trump’s Abnormality during the virtual event of the Trump campaign MOREPrison Office Director Michael Carvajal and James Petrucci, the director of the federal prison in Otisville, New York, where Cohen is being held.
“He is being held in retaliation for his protected speech, including drafting a manuscript of the book that is critical of the President, and recently made public his intention to publish that book soon, shortly before the next election,” the petition presented in the southern district of the states of New York.
The petition seeks Cohen’s immediate release to home confinement, arguing that Cohen’s imprisonment violates the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cohen, who is serving a three-year prison sentence on charges he pleaded guilty to in 2018, was placed in house arrest in May for health problems due to the new coronavirus.
However, Cohen was returned to federal custody earlier this month after a dispute with probation officers over a provision in his home confinement agreement that would have prevented him from speaking to or through the media. , even by publishing a book.
The petition filed Monday indicates that Cohen made clear his intention to publish the book in a series of tweets before the Bureau of Prisons presented the terms of the confinement agreement.
According to the request, Cohen began working on his manuscript after arriving in prison. He claims the book contains damaging allegations about Trump, including the fact that he made anti-Semitic comments about the “prominent Jewish people,” as well as racist comments about former President Obama and Nelson Mandela. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cohen worked for Trump for more than a decade before becoming president, serving as his personal attorney and “repairman.” In 2018, he pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and campaign finance violations and later admitted to lying to Congress about a Trump Tower project in Moscow.
Cohen delivered extraordinary public testimony to Congress against his former boss in February 2019, calling Trump “racist,” “swindler,” and “cheat.” His decision to do so earned him public reprimand from Trump, who accused Cohen of lying.
The petition also cites other demands from the Trump administration and the Trump family to prevent the publication of recent books written by the former national security adviser. John Bolton
John Bolton Are US-Japan Relations on the Rocks? Trump attacks his niece in a series of tweets: “She is a mess!” The note: Can the new campaign manager help Trump? PLUS and the president’s niece, Mary Trump, presents them as examples of the administration’s efforts to “censor speech that reflects negatively on Trump himself or his administration.”
The administration’s lawsuit against Bolton alleged that the former White House aide published the book without completing the pre-publication review process and that it contained classified information. Trump’s brother Robert Trump sued to block the publication of Mary Trump’s book, arguing that the work violated a confidentiality agreement he signed with other family members. Neither effort was successful in preventing the release of the books, which were published earlier this summer. Trump has criticized both Bolton and her niece with criticism, accusing them of telling lies.
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