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Ex-Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Home From Prison Early Due to Virus Fear

Ex-Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Home From Prison Early Due to Virus Fear

(Bloomberg) -- Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, is back home at his Manhattan apartment where he’s being allowed to serve the rest of his three-year sentence for campaign finance violations.

Cohen, 53, was photographed arriving at his Park Avenue building, wearing a mask, a cap, jeans and a blazer. He said in a tweet that he thanked the media upon arrival.

Ex-Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Home From Prison Early Due to Virus Fear

The decision to release Cohen early reflects how the world has changed since March 24, when a judge rejected the former lawyer’s March 17 request for home confinement due to his fear of contracting the coronavirus. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in New York said at the time Cohen had not shown he was in any danger at the prison camp and was just trying “to inject himself into the news cycle.”

On Twitter, Cohen thanked his supporters and said he had a lot to say, but now isn’t the time.

The virus has spread quickly since Cohen’s request for early release in mid-March, with the U.S. death toll passing 90,000. Across the country, thousands of non-violent inmates and those who are close to finishing long sentences have sought to be released early, citing the spread of the coronavirus in tightly packed jails.

A federal judge in Boston ordered one of the parents in the college admissions scandal released into home confinement in April. Dean Skelos, the former New York state senate majority leader who was convicted of corruption charges in 2015, was also allowed home confinement last month after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Cohen pleaded guilty in December 2018 to campaign finance violations related to his arrangement of hush-money payments to women claiming to have had affairs with Trump, including adult-film star Stormy Daniels. He also turned on Trump, whom he called a “racist” and a “con man” in February 2019 congressional testimony.

Cohen had also previously requested early release or home confinement in December based on his cooperation with authorities. In his March ruling, Pauley said Cohen had exaggerated his role in assisting prosecutors, who also opposed letting him out.

The case is U.S. v. Cohen, 18-cr-00602, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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