Court orders Michael Cohen's release
A federal judge has ordered the release of Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, reversing a decision earlier this month to reimprison Cohen after a dispute over a Justice Department-imposed gag order.
Cohen will serve the remainder of his prison sentence at home, U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled.
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Hellerstein said Cohen's return to prison amounted to retaliation for his refusal to agree to the broad restrictions on his public statements, including publishing books or articles, as well as communicating with the press. Cohen has argued that the gag order amounted to a retaliatory rule intended to block him from writing a book critical of the president.
"I've never seen such a clause, in 21 years of being a judge, sentencing people and looking at terms and conditions of supervised release, I've never seen such a clause," Hellerstein said during a 35-minute telephone hearing Thursday on a habeas corpus petition Cohen filed seeking his release. "How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?"
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https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/23/court-orders-michael-cohens-release-379941