BREAKING: Michael Cohen Released From Prison To Home Confinement
Credit: Screenshot
July 23, 2020

Just weeks ago Michael Cohen was sent back to prison after refusing to agree to not write a book or conduct media interviews as a condition of house arrest, a huge violation of his First Amendment rights. Thursday, a Judge agreed and has now ordered Cohen to be released to home confinement, saying on the record that it was pretty clear that his reconfinement was retaliation for writing a book about Donald Trump.

The Washington Post reports that U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has ordered Cohen to be released from prison by 2 p.m. on Friday. He will then be placed under house arrest in his home in Manhattan.

The judge made this scathing statement in the phone conference:

“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 a book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and with others."

The judge refused to accept the prosecutor's explanation for the remand, which was that Cohen was "combative" with the probation official overseeing his release.

Twitter had thoughts:

We may be on the verge of going full authoritarian, but the First Amendment appears intact (for now). Michael Cohen was Trump's "fixer" for so long - his book will be a bestseller before the first day it's released.

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