TheJakartaPost

Please Update your browser

Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.

Jakarta Post

Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen to be released due to coronavirus outbreak: Sources

Aram Roston and Mark Hosenball (Reuters)
Fri, April 17, 2020

Share This Article

Change Size

Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen to be released due to coronavirus outbreak: Sources Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney to US President Donald Trump, will be released early from prison because of the coronavirus pandemic, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Thursday. (AFP/-)

M

ichael Cohen, the former personal attorney to US President Donald Trump, will be released early from prison because of the coronavirus pandemic, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters late on Thursday.

Cohen, who has served less than one year of a three-year sentence, will serve the rest of his time in home confinement, one of the sources said. Before his release, he will have to undergo a two-week quarantine to ensure he does not have symptoms of COVID-19, according to the source, who asked not to be identified.

Roger Adler, Cohen's lawyer, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said that as of Thursday night Cohen was still incarcerated in the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution.

A spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cohen, who once said he would "take a bullet" for Trump, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 for directing hush payments to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed they had affairs with Trump. The US president has denied having the encounters.

Cohen, 53, was sent to a minimum-security camp at Otisville in upstate New York, about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of New York City.

He had pressed to be released early due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hammered New York state and surfaced in prisons around the country.

Last month, a federal judge denied the request, saying Cohen should accept the consequences of his crimes rather than invoke the pandemic to justify his freedom.

"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," US District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan wrote.

The judge said that Cohen's attempt to "single himself out for release to home confinement appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle."

 

 

Your Opinion Matters

Share your experiences, suggestions, and any issues you've encountered on The Jakarta Post. We're here to listen.

Enter at least 30 characters
0 / 30

Thank You

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We appreciate your feedback.