Michael Cohen should stay in home confinement for 9 more months, prosecutors say

NEW YORK — Michael Cohen must serve home confinement until Nov. 22, 2021, prosecutors say, rejecting arguments made by Donald Trump’s former fixer that he should already be done with his sentence for campaign finance violations, lying to Congress and other crimes.

Cohen sued in December, claiming that his sentence should be trimmed because of Trump’s criminal justice reform. Good behavior and participation in prison programs should have resulted in him already having completed his sentence, Cohen argued.

In new filings made public Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Rovner wrote that many of the programs Cohen completed behind bars, such as Drug Education: Freedom from Drugs, Health/Fitness, Victim Impact and Business Startup, did not count as credit toward his sentence for technical reasons related to Bureau of Prisons policy.

Cohen said it was “disgraceful” that prosecutors had waited the maximum 60 days to respond to his lawsuit.

“My only hope is that the court does not permit the BOP and government to do what they so frequently do, which is running out the clock,” Cohen said.

“I should have been off of home confinement in January.”

Cohen, who flipped on Trump after serving as his right-hand man for years, has recently met with prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office in connection with a criminal probe of the Trump Organization.