Michael Cohen Reportedly To Be Released From Prison Due To Coronavirus, Serving Remainder Of Sentence At Home
President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, will reportedly be released early from prison and will spend the rest of his sentence at home due to the coronavirus outbreak in the New York facility where he has been serving his sentence.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to Congress and for campaign finance violations. He has been behind bars since last May and was expected to remain there until November of next year. However, the federal correctional institute in Otisville in upstate New York has experienced an outbreak of COVID-19, and Cohen was granted compassionate release, according to an insider.
Cohen initially appealed for compassionate release in March but was denied by the judge who said in the ruling that the lawyer was seeking to “inject himself into the news cycle.”
“Ten months into his prison term, it’s time that Cohen accept the consequences of his criminal convictions for serious crimes that had far-reaching institutional harms,” NBC News reported that U.S. District Judge William Pauley III wrote at the time.
“Apparently searching for a new argument to justify a modification of his sentence to home confinement, Cohen now raises the specter of COVID-19,” he added.
The Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons have released numerous nonviolent or at-risk inmates as the novel coronavirus spreads throughout the prison system. Cohen was initially told he would be released earlier last month, but the bureau narrowed its requirements for releasing prisoners and he was expected to stay behind bars.
So far, more than two dozen inmates and employees have been infected with the disease at the facility where Cohen is being held.
Cohen will reportedly be released to his home on Thursday after processing. The lawyer was previously a staunch supporter of Trump after working for him for years but has recently become a harsh critic of the president.
Cohen has been making headlines recently after revealing that he was writing a tell-all book about his experiences with Trump.
“Michael spent a long time with Trump — he is going to go into everything and he’s not going to hold anything back,” an insider revealed.
Lawyers representing the president have reportedly sent a letter to his former ally to tell him to stop writing the expose, as The Inquistr previously reported.
Cohen reportedly signed a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits him from speaking of his time with the president, his business ventures, or his family.
