Michael Cohen is being released from prison due to COVID-19 and is expected to serve out the rest of his sentence under house arrest, according to report
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, is said to have secured an early release from federal prison as the new coronavirus continues to spread, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A person familiar with the matter told The Journal that Cohen would serve out the rest of his three-year sentence from home confinement.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations as well as making false statements to Congress. He was scheduled for release in November 2021.
According to the federal Bureau of Prisons online tracking system, 2,265 federal inmates and 279 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 across the US. An additional 2,177 inmates and 389 staff have recovered from the virus as of May 20.
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, is said to have secured an early release from federal prison as the new coronavirus continues to spread.
A person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Cohen is expected to leave the federal prison in Otisville, New York, located about 75 miles northwest of New York City, and serve out the rest of his three-year sentence from home confinement.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations as well as making false statements to Congress. He was scheduled for release in November 2021.
According to The Journal, Cohen is among more than 2,900 federal inmates who have been moved to house arrest in recent weeks.
Representatives for Cohen's lawyer, Roger Adler, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Cohen said on Twitter in March that an inmate at the prison tested positive for the coronavirus. He asked for "compassionate release" as the virus began to take hold in New York, but his plea was rejected by US District Judge William Pauley.
"Ten months into his prison term, it's time that Cohen accepts the consequences of his criminal convictions for serious crimes that had far-reaching institutional harms," Pauley wrote in his order.
According to the federal Bureau of Prisons online tracking system, 2,265 federal inmates and 279 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 across the US. An additional 2,177 inmates and 389 staff have recovered from the virus as of May 20.
The bureau said it has begun additional testing of asymptomatic inmates in order to better monitor the disease spread in its facilities.
According to the tracker, no inmates at the Otisville facility have currently tested positive for COVID-19, though it noted that 12 inmates have since recovered from the disease. One staff member at Otisville has tested positive, and another 14 staff members have recovered.
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