Former Attorney General Bill Barr was apparently served with a summons on Thursday at his house in McLean, Virginia, a posh Washington, D.C. suburb.
The summons asks Barr to answer to a claim filed in 2020 by Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen alleging a breach of his First Amendment rights.
Barr was “wearing shorts and did not look happy,” according to Cohen’s lawyer Andrew Laufer.
The complaint is part of a broader action against Barr and Trump, saying that they were actively engaged in his release to house arrest amid the COVID-19 crisis that was sweeping the country’s prisons. Cohen would have been freed on home arrest as a non-violent criminal, but he would have had to sign a statement promising not to give interviews or write a book. Cohen’s lawyer contended that such a request would be a violation of his First Amendment rights.
Cohen pursued the litigation all the way up the chain to a judge, who dismissed the claim, agreeing that the move constituted retribution.
“I make the finding 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 the book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and elsewhere,” said US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
Hellerstein said that in his 21 years on the bench, he had “never seen such a clause. How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?”
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in May 2018 for tax evasion and campaign finance offences. Due to concerns about COVID-19, he was released for home confinement in May of last year.
During his imprisonment at home in June and July of last year, Cohen promoted his upcoming memoir. In response, the former attorney was informed by a probation officer that he would be subject to a gag order prohibiting him from communicating with the media for the balance of his term.
Cohen was allegedly sent to jail after requesting clarification on the decision on the grounds that he had refused to adhere to the terms of his surveillance.
“Defendant Trump issued specific directives and guidance to his co-defendants that governed the treatment of plaintiff and others who he believed were his political enemies,” the lawsuit alleges.
“At his direction, plaintiff was remanded back to prison and subjected to great indignities when he was unlawfully incarcerated and held in solitary confinement.”
Cohen was sentenced to sixteen days in solitary confinement in jail, according to his lawsuit. The claim, filed in federal court in Manhattan, demands damages for “extreme physical and emotional harm.” According to the Associated Press, Cohen “suffered shortness of breath, terrible migraines, and anxiety inside a tiny cage he exited for 30 minutes a day.”
“It’s just apparent what happened here. This is political retribution,” Andrew Laufer, Cohen attorney, told Courthouse News. “They violated my client’s First Amendment rights by retaliating against him, and we intend on seeking compensation for it.”
“This is just part and parcel to what the Trump administration represented,” Laufer added. “They stomped on people’s rights, they retaliated against those who fell out of favor, and they just ignored the Constitution and the law. And we intend on having them answer for that.”
Since his incarceration, Cohen has often commented on different issues involving Trump’s family in the aftermath of the former president’s departure from office. In testimony to Congress in February 2019, the disbarred attorney stated that Trump inflated and deflated his personal assets, which are currently the subject of a civil investigation in New York investigating suspected financial wrongdoing by the Trump Organization.
In November, Cohen said that he 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.”
