A federal judge on Thursday said he intended to order that Michael Cohen be returned to home confinement, after the former Trump attorney was sent back to prison earlier this month over a dispute with federal corrections officials.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accused the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of trying to violate Cohen’s First Amendment rights by imposing a gag order as a condition of his home confinement.
“I make the finding that the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail as retaliatory, and it’s retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish the book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media” and elsewhere, Hellerstein said during a court hearing on Thursday.
Cohen had been writing a book about his time working for President Trump and the ACLU filed a lawsuit this week alleging that he was sent back to prison in retaliation for the tell-all. Cohen is serving a three-year sentence for various charges, including fraud and lying to Congress.
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JUST IN: Judge to order Michael Cohen be released from prison, returned to home confinement https://t.co/ZM79icMxdb pic.twitter.com/BjqXeeq9pU
— The Hill (@thehill) July 23, 2020
I figured Trump had a hand in sending him back to prison. So Trump is trying to prevent another person from talking? What’s new?
The original story was that Cohen had been photographed dining out with his wife and another couple in violation of the terms of his home confinement following his release from prison. Interesting to find out that the arrest was to prevent Cohen from telling what he knows. Yes, I agree — Trump had his faithful lapdog, Bill Barr, find a way to put Cohen back in prison to prevent him from writing and releasing his book.
By the way, I was reading up on the judge in this case, Alvin Hellerstein. He is listed as retired, but in many jurisdictions, if needed, retired judges may still preside over cases. Judge Hellerstein also presided over the Harvey Weinstein case in New York last year. He is a Clinton nominee to the federal bench, so I’m guessing next we will hear the conspiracy theory that the Clintons reached out to the judge to spring Cohen, so he could write his book.
What’s interesting is that these books didn’t seem to damage Trump any. I don’t see anything new about that. She was interviewed a few times but I think it was a case of “tell us something we don’t already know”. People start to have gotten used to the corruption and craziness like it is the new normal.
About the only people these books might influence are the undecideds. I think most people have already made up their minds and these books won’t change them. What will, and maybe already has, influenced voters’ decisions has been Trump’s response (or lack thereof) to COVID-19.
Judge: Cohen must be released by 2pm tomorrow.
Judge: I make the finding that the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen to jail was retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish his book.
Sit back and think about that. Frightening this happened
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) July 23, 2020
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