By Aaron Miler-
A U.S judge ordered the release from prison of President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Thursday, saying he believes the government retaliated against him for writing a book about his former boss.
District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he had never in his 21 years on the bench a provision barring a prisoner from speaking to the media and that his First Amendment rights were violated.
Disgraced lawyer, Cohen was sent home from prison in May on furlough because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He was re-arrested on July 9 after questioning a home detention agreement that barred him from publishing his book, engaging with news organisations and posting on social media.
Delivering his verdict, Judge Heleristan said:’The purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory and its retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his first amendment rights to publish a book and discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and others,’
Cohen’s book intends to reveal ‘graphic details’ about Trump’s behavior ‘behind closed doors’ and reveal how he used ‘anti-Semitic remarks’ against Jewish people and ‘racist remarks’ against Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela.
Set Back
The legal set back for Trump in attempting to ban critical books is the third.
Efforts to ban by John Bolton, his former national security advisor, and a memoir by his niece Mary Trump, also failed in the courts.
Trump had failed to stop both books from coming out, alleging through the DOJ that Bolton had revealed classified information and then taking part in his brother’s lawsuit claiming that Mary Trump had violated a nondisclosure agreement and had to be gagged.
Imprisoned
‘Michael Cohen is currently imprisoned in solitary confinement because he is drafting a book manuscript that is critical of the President of the United States and because he recently made public that he intends to publish this book shortly before the upcoming election,’ Cohen’s lawyers, who include attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in seeking an order for his immediate release.
Challenge
Cohen challenged every provision of an agreement that would have let him finish his sentence at home, prosecutors said. Among the provisions were the media ban, electronic monitoring and approval for employment.
Jon Gustin, a Federal Bureau of Prisons official, said in a court filing that he made the decision to send Cohen back to prison.
‘In my view, Cohen’s behavior and, in particular, his refusal to sign the conditions of home confinement was unacceptable and undermined his suitability for placement on home confinement,’ Gustin wrote.
The book provides graphic details about the President’s behavior behind closed doors,’ the lawsuit says.
‘For example, the narrative describes pointedly certain anti-Semitic remarks against prominent Jewish people and virulently racist remarks against such Black leaders as President Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela.’
The book ‘will rely upon and publish numerous previously unknown anecdotes, supported by documentary evidence,’ the lawsuit states.
Cohen wrote the book behind bars writing the memoir before he was released from prison on furlough in May.