Donald Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen sues ex-boss for ‘retaliating to memoir by returning him in prison’
Former President Donald Trump’s longtime fixer Michael Cohen has sued his ex-boss, claiming Trump retaliated against his damning memoir by allegedly putting him back in prison.
Cohen, who completed a three-year prison and home confinement sentence last month, filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Thursday. His tell-all tale, Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J Trump, was published and ripped Trump in September 2020 while he was still in office.
Trump’s former lawyer went to prison in May 2019 to serve time for crimes including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. After about a year, he was released to home confinement amid the coronavirus outbreak in federal prisons.
But weeks later, federal authorities forced Cohen back into prison, saying that he did not accept specific terms of his release. Cohen claimed that he only asked for clarification on a term prohibiting him from publishing his book and talking to the media.
Cohen contends that he experienced shortness of breath, strong headaches and anxiety in a small cell at a federal prison in Otisville, New York. It started with 16 days in solitary confinement.
The suit seeks damages for ‘extreme physical and emotional harm’ and for Cohen’s First Amendment rights being violated.
‘Without accountability, we have only chaos,’ Cohen’s lawyer Jeffrey Levine said.
Prosecutors said that probation officers were not aware of Cohen’s then-forthcoming book when they ordered that his communications with the public be significantly restricted. A federal judge later let him return to home confinement, saying that his second stint in federal prison was ‘retaliatory’.
Testifying before Congress in 2019, Cohen showed a check for reimbursement he received for arranging a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels – who alleged she had an affair with Trump – in exchange for her silence. It was in 2016, when Trump made his first bid for president.
Upon completing his sentence in November, Cohen said his release did not ‘negate’ crimes he said he committed under Trump’s orders.
‘I will continue to provide information, testimony, documents and my full cooperation on all ongoing investigations to ensure that others are held responsible for their dirty deeds and that no one is ever believed to be above the law,’ Cohen said at the time, seemingly sending a warning to Trump.
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