Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, learned on Tuesday that the government would not defend the former president in a lawsuit filed by Cohen.
The lawsuit accuses Trump, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and the Bureau of Prisons of singling out Cohen and re-incarcerating him after he disobeyed the demand that he never come out against Trump again.
“I have never heard of such a spectacularly overbroad restriction on speech as a condition of probation or supervised release,” said ACLU director of the National Prison Project David C. Fathi.
Cohen is suing, claiming that his First Amendment rights have been abused. However, it is not the case that a former litigator for the Southern District of New York is interested in. Richard Signorelli tweeted on Wednesday that a new revelation about the government not defending Trump could indicate other aspects of the case.
If the latter, then DOJ may be reconsidering their position to defend Trump in the Carroll case pending in 2d Cir. Will they file papers withdrawing their appeal of Judge Kaplan's decision? If so, then this is could be a sign that Trump is now being actively targeted by DOJ. 3/
— Richard Signorelli (@richsignorelli) March 30, 2022
He said that he no longer works for the SDNY and can only guess on what the Justice Department is up to. It did, however, make him worry whether the DOJ “might be in possession of derogatory evidence about Trump as it relates to Michael’s allegations of retaliation.”
There’s also the possibility that the DOJ may rethink defending Trump if he’s a target of a criminal probe. That, according to Signorelli, might result in a conflict of interest at the DOJ.
If the explanation is a conflict of interest, it suggests that the Justice Department is revising its stance on defending Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case, which is now before the Second Circuit.
“Will they file papers withdrawing their appeal of Judge Kaplan’s decision?” asked Signorelli. “If so, then this is could be a sign that Trump is now being actively targeted by DOJ. Time may tell. As with all targets, subjects, and defendants, Trump is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law.”
Cohen was ordered to surrender to jail in May 2019 for assisting his former client in concealing illicit campaign payments to claimed former girlfriends.
Cohen was discharged on medical leave about a year later, which was not uncommon given the epidemic. Cohen, like many nonviolent inmates at the time, was sentenced to house arrest.
It didn’t last long. The lawyer appeared at a New York courtroom only weeks into home confinement, hoping to finish some regular paperwork. Instead, he was approached by probation authorities who asked him to sign a paper that would bar him from releasing a book or speaking to the media for the balance of his term.
Cohen, who is working on an anti-Trump book, refused, claiming that the order violated his First Amendment free speech rights. Cohen was handcuffed about 90 minutes later. The Bureau of Prisons chose to withdraw his home confinement and return him to jail.
In July 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein agreed that government authorities looked to be attempting to silence Cohen.
“I’ve never seen such a clause in 21 years of being a judge and sentencing people,” the federal judge said. “How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?” said Hellerstein.
He then returned Cohen to home confinement, and the book was published as planned.
Barr was apparently served with a summons at his house in McLean, Virginia, a posh Washington, D.C. suburb.
Barr was “wearing shorts and did not look happy,” according to Cohen’s lawyer Andrew Laufer.
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.”
