Michael Cohen will be released from prison in the coming days.
The former Trump lawyer was released earlier this summer into house arrest, due to fears over Covid-19 infecting inmates.
He was swiftly sent back after he was spotted out to dinner while on house arrest.
It is being reported that Cohen was asked to sign an agreement stating he would not work on a book he intends to write on his time working for President Trump, and now a judge has ruled that this was a violation of his 1st Amendment Rights, and he should be allowed back out of prison.
From CNBC:
Shortly before being taken into custody earlier this month, he had been posting on social media about his upcoming book, which is going to be critical of Trump.
During Thursday’s hearing, Hellerstein was highly skeptical of arguments by a federal prosecutor that Cohen was not locked up in retaliation for the book or that the book-related condition was not sought by officials for a specific reason in his case.
At one point, when another prosecutor tried to come to the aid of the prosecutor who was answering the judge’s questions, Hellerstein angrily cut him off, reminding him of the rule that only one lawyer argued for each side in a case.
Hellerstein in ordering Cohen’s release, said that he found that “the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory, and it’s retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and others.”
Cohen, who has been in quarantine in Otisville since his arrival there, will be released by 2 p.m. after being tested for the coronavirus and will be driven back to his home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side by his son, Hellerstein said.
After his release into home confinement, he will be subject to a number of restrictions on his movement, employment and contact with other people."
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