Ex-Trump lawyer behind bars again after dispute over gag order - attorney

 

FILE PHOTO: Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at his Manhattan apartment after being released from federal prison to serve the remainder of his sentence under home confinement in New York City, New York U.S., May 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, was taken to a federal jail on Thursday after refusing to agree to a gag order as a condition of serving his criminal sentence under home confinement, Cohen's lawyer said.

 

Cohen, 53, was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to his lawyer, Jeffrey Levine. Cohen had been released from a federal prison in upstate New York in May due to concerns over possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.

 

He had completed about a year of a three-year sentence for his role in hush money payments to two women, as well as for financial crimes and lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen had originally been eligible for release in November 2021.

 

On Thursday, he was ordered to a federal courthouse in Manhattan to convert his furlough to home confinement, Levine said outside of the courthouse.

 

He said they were presented with an agreement that barred Cohen from having any contact with news media organizations, TV, film or book publishing outlets, or from posting on social media.

 

Attorney for Michael Cohen, Jeffrey Levine holds up a document as he tells the media Cohen has been remanded outside Federal Court in the Manhattan Borough of New York City, New York, U.S., July 9, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

 

"I've never seen any language like this in my life," Levine said.

 

After objecting, Levine said the U.S. Marshals Service came with "shackles" and ordered Cohen remanded to the jail in Brooklyn because he failed to agree to the terms.

 

The federal Bureau of Prisons said Cohen refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result was returned to a detention facility.

 

Levine said he was working to resolve the dispute over the terms of home confinement.

 

On July 2, Cohen tweeted that he was close to completing a book with an anticipated publication date of September.

 

At the time of Cohen's release in May, he wrote on Twitter that "there is so much I want to say and intend to say. But now is not the right time. Soon."

 

Cohen once said he would "take a bullet" for Trump but later turned on his former boss and cooperated with Democratic-led congressional inquiries. Trump has called Cohen a "rat." Cohen has called Trump a "racist," a "con man" and "a cheat."

 

Trump, who is facing a challenging re-election bid in November, had to deal recently with two unflattering books about his administration and family, one by former national security adviser John Bolton and another by his niece Mary Trump.

 

Thursday's events come a week after Cohen was spotted at a sidewalk table at the French restaurant Le Bilboquet near his Park Avenue apartment in Manhattan, according to the New York Post newspaper.

 

Levine had told the Post that the dinner did not violate the terms of Cohen's release from prison.

 

Cohen was sentenced for his role in hush money payments to two women, pornographic film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougall, who said they had sexual relationships with Trump. The president has denied having relationships with either woman.

 

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, and Noeleen Walder, Carlo Allegri and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Franklin Paul, Daniel Wallis and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-10

 

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So much for the "home of the brave and land of the free".

The dicktator is all powerful.

 

So to get this straight.

 

The court furloughed Cohen’s sentence and attached conditions to his release to serve his sentence at home.

 

Cohen abides by those conditions but then starts to write a book the President doesn’t want written, talk to the media and ‘Tweet’ stuff - none of which was prohibited by the court in his release order.

 

Cohen is only then presented with a second agreement that he can remain at home if he agrees not to write/publish books, talk to the media or ‘Tweet’.

 

He refuses knowing full well that he’ll be sent back to prison.

 

Its difficult not to see this as government powers being used to silence a critic of the President.

 

While Cohen’s lawyer’s challenge that and who ever ordered this move against Cohen hopes their name doesn’t come out in that court challenge, Cohen’s book will be published anyway.

 

Publishing date is said to be September, right around the time Mitch McConnell has said Trump needs to have turned around his dismal showing in the polls.

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 20205 yr by Chomper Higgot

37 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

So to get this straight.

 

The court furloughed Cohen’s sentence and attached conditions to his release to serve his sentence at home.

 

Cohen abides by those conditions but then starts to write a book the President doesn’t want written, talk to the media and ‘Tweet’ stuff - none of which was prohibited by the court in his release order.

 

Cohen is only then presented with a second agreement that he can remain at home if he agrees not to write/publish books, talk to the media or ‘Tweet’.

 

He refuses knowing full well that he’ll be sent back to prison.

 

Its difficult not to see this as government powers being used to silence a critic of the President.

 

While Cohen’s lawyer’s challenge that and who ever ordered this move against Cohen hopes their name doesn’t come out in that court challenge, Cohen’s book will be published anyway.

 

Publishing date is said to be September, right around the time Mitch McConnell has said Trump needs to have turned around his dismal showing in the polls.

 

 

 

It seems Cohen and his lawyer thought a negotiation was going on.  Apparently he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Similar to his former client. Regardless of what his council says he was  in breach of the conditions of his release when he went to that restaurant. How he thought he was going to get away with that seems odd and reckless.

Edited July 10, 20205 yr by pegman

2 hours ago, webfact said:

was taken to a federal jail on Thursday after refusing to agree to a gag order as a condition of serving his criminal sentence under home confinement,

Sound like corruption. Gag. 

Free speech?

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

hush money payments to two women

Brown envelope?

 

21 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Its difficult not to see this as government powers being used to silence a critic of the President.

Hmmmm

2 minutes ago, Yinn said:

3 hours ago, webfact said:

hush money payments to two women

Brown envelope?

No a fake LV bag from the Thai markets

He should have stayed home house arrest mean house that beeing said I hope they slap his hands and send him home again good luck mike and turn your life around 

8 minutes ago, Tug said:

He should have stayed home house arrest mean house that beeing said I hope they slap his hands and send him home again good luck mike and turn your life around 

Barr and Trump don't play that sort of nice. Remember Epstein?

12 minutes ago, pegman said:

Barr and Trump don't play that sort of nice. Remember Epstein?

I hope you are wrong on that one but I wouldent but it past them

We’ve only last month witnessed the kind of publicity campaigning Publisher’s surely dream of in which a sitting President goes to court to try to stop the public seeing a book he doesn’t want them to read.

 

We now move to even higher peaks of publicity genius in which the powers of the state are used to send a man back to prison in an attempt to prevent the public seeing the book he is writing because the President doesn’t want the public to read it.

 

Pure genius.

 

 

Edited July 10, 20205 yr by Chomper Higgot

"He said they were presented with an agreement that barred Cohen from having any contact with news media organizations, TV, film or book publishing outlets, or from posting on social media."

 

Why would that need to be a condition of home arrest?

Are your rights under the constitution suspended while in incarceration? 

Genuine question guys not trying to score points.

48 minutes ago, Rookiescot said:

"He said they were presented with an agreement that barred Cohen from having any contact with news media organizations, TV, film or book publishing outlets, or from posting on social media."

 

Why would that need to be a condition of home arrest?

Are your rights under the constitution suspended while in incarceration? 

Genuine question guys not trying to score points.

Generally an inmate has the right of free speech to the extent that the exercise of that right does not interfere with their fellow inmates' rights. 

With Cohen being under home arrest, he would be isolated from prison inmates. He had already been convicted and found guilty previously so there's no potential for trial jury interference as was the case with Roger Stone.

What the federal government might on the other hand be accused of inhumane (by unconstitutional violation of free speech) inhumane treatment by violation of a person's basic dignity considered cruel and unusual punishment for not agreeing to a gag order. 

See further discussion at www.hg.org/legal-articles/do-inmates-have-rights-if-so-what-are-they-31517

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

We’ve only last month witnessed the kind of publicity campaigning Publisher’s surely dream of in which a sitting President goes to court to try to stop the public seeing a book he doesn’t want them to read.

 

We now move to even higher peaks of publicity genius in which the powers of the state are used to send a man back to prison in an attempt to prevent the public seeing the book he is writing because the President doesn’t want the public to read it.

 

Pure genius.

 

 

And the real genius is the President who claims that there is a "deep state" operating against the interests of ordinary Americans . . .  You could not make it up!

2 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

"He said they were presented with an agreement that barred Cohen from having any contact with news media organizations, TV, film or book publishing outlets, or from posting on social media."

 

Why would that need to be a condition of home arrest?

Are your rights under the constitution suspended while in incarceration? 

Genuine question guys not trying to score points.

Actually your rights are suspended in the USA when you go to prison, such as your right to vote. If you go to prison for a felony in some states, you lose your right to vote for years after you get out. Also, you must reveal that you ARE a felon long after you have served your time to anyone who wants to know, including employers and various other institutions. THe constitution means nothing if you are in prison or have been in prison for a felony.

4 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

"He said they were presented with an agreement that barred Cohen from having any contact with news media organizations, TV, film or book publishing outlets, or from posting on social media."

 

Why would that need to be a condition of home arrest?

Are your rights under the constitution suspended while in incarceration? 

Genuine question guys not trying to score points.

It seems a bit naïve to think that Trump and his henchmen like Barr  are going to fight by Marquis de Queensberry rules. They had leverage with Cohen breaking the conditions of his release by going to the restaurant and they were damn well going to use it to suppress any new  revelations. 

6 hours ago, Tug said:

He should have stayed home house arrest mean house that beeing said I hope they slap his hands and send him home again good luck mike and turn your life around 

It's not at all clear that his medical furlough (not house arrest or home confinement) had staying at home as a condition.  That's just been speculation. The Feds didn't lock him up again for that. Why would they be negotiating with him at all if he already was in violation?

Edited July 10, 20205 yr by jordanmarcinkus

5 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Generally an inmate has the right of free speech to the extent that the exercise of that right does not interfere with their fellow inmates' rights. 

With Cohen being under home arrest, he would be isolated from prison inmates. He had already been convicted and found guilty previously so there's no potential for trial jury interference as was the case with Roger Stone.

What the federal government might on the other hand be accused of inhumane (by unconstitutional violation of free speech) inhumane treatment by violation of a person's basic dignity considered cruel and unusual punishment for not agreeing to a gag order. 

See further discussion at www.hg.org/legal-articles/do-inmates-have-rights-if-so-what-are-they-31517

This is from the web page you linked to:

First Amendment Rights

Inmates retain basic First Amendment rights (i.e., free speech and religion) only to the extent that the exercise of those rights do not interfere with their status as inmates. If the prisoner's attempt to exercise their First Amendment rights interfere with the legitimate objectives of the correctional facility, like like order, discipline, and security, they will generally be curtailed. As a result, prison officials can open incoming mail, read e-mails, and screen outgoing communications to ensure that it does not contain any messages that could interfere with the facility's objectives. But, prison officials cannot screen out things they consider merely rude or inflammatory to those outside of the facility.

7 hours ago, pegman said:

It seems Cohen and his lawyer thought a negotiation was going on.  Apparently he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Similar to his former client. Regardless of what his council says he was  in breach of the conditions of his release when he went to that restaurant. How he thought he was going to get away with that seems odd and reckless.

What are you on about. His having dinner had nothing to do with him going back to jail.

A post with an intentional misspelling of Trump's name has been removed. 

Didn`t Roger Stone have similar media restrictions placed upon him also?

Don`t remember any of the liberals on here complaining about that.Liberals are so funny.

40 minutes ago, dundee48 said:

Didn`t Roger Stone have similar media restrictions placed upon him also?

Don`t remember any of the liberals on here complaining about that.Liberals are so funny.

Roger Stone had media restrictions placed on after he was caught posting images and comments the judge deemed threatening.

 

The restrictions where placed on Stone in court at the time of his hearing.

 

The judge in Cohen’s case placed no restrictions on Cohen’s use of media and certainly no restrictions on him publishing any books.  

 

These restrictions were only this week sought and he has chosen to reject them.

 

His lawyers will explain why.

 

Meanwhile Cohen’s book will be published sometime around September.

 

This attempt to prevent him publishing his book will undoubtedly boost sales.

 

Pure genius.

18 hours ago, Yinn said:

Sound like corruption. Gag. 

Free speech?

 

Brown envelope?

 

Hmmmm

Another useless reply from you 

Do you have free speech in Thailand?

We do not have brown envelopes in the west

Try to get out a bit more

 

Some troll posts and replies have been removed.