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Law360 (July 9, 2020, 4:32 PM EDT ) Michael Cohen was taken back into custody Thursday following his furlough release due to concerns related to COVID-19, the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Law360, saying President Donald Trump's former lawyer "refused the conditions of his home confinement."
Cohen, who admitted in 2018 to a "smorgasbord" of crimes during his time as an attorney for Trump, was furloughed May 21 from the New York federal prison where he had been an inmate for a year. The BOP gave no specifics in its statement Thursday as to what conditions Cohen refused.
According to Cohen's friend and legal adviser Lanny Davis of Davis Goldberg & Galper PLLC, the reimprisonment stems from an issue around Cohen initially refusing to accept terms that would prohibit him from publishing a book while in home confinement.
Davis told reporters on a conference call that Cohen met with probation officers at 11 a.m. Thursday. Davis spoke to Cohen on the phone as Cohen drove to the meeting.
"He had no indication in his tone of voice that there was anything amiss," Davis said.
Once there, he was presented with a list of enumerated points of things he couldn't do during home confinement, including speaking to the media and using social media platforms, Davis said, relaying what he learned from Cohen attorney Jeffrey Levine. When told he could not publish a book, Cohen refused to accept that one item, Davis said.
Authorities left the room for an hour and a half, according to Davis, and when they returned they shackled and arrested Cohen.
"I'll sign what you want me to sign," Cohen said, according to Davis.
"It's out of our hands," U.S. marshals responded, according to Davis.
Cohen was furloughed amid the BOP's efforts to help contain the ongoing pandemic. He was expected to transition into home confinement and serve out the rest of his sentence there.
The furloughing decision by the BOP came less than two months after a Manhattan federal judge denied a bid by the 53-year-old for early release based on health concerns, describing it as an apparent media stunt.
U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III seemed poised to leave Cohen to serve his 36-month sentence at an upstate New York federal detention center.
At two hearings in August 2018 and November 2018, Cohen admitted to a total of nine criminal offenses: five counts of tax evasion, two counts of campaign finance violations for paying off women who claimed to have had affairs with the president, a count of lying to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the extent of his dealings with Russia, and a count of lying to a bank.
Cohen styled himself a cooperator and had asked Judge Pauley for a sentence that did not include prison. But Manhattan federal prosecutors rejected the notion that he was a true cooperating witness and asked for a substantial prison term.
The government is represented by Thomas McKay, Nicolas Roos and Andrea Griswold of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Cohen is represented by Michael Monico of Monico & Spevack and Roger Adler.
The case is U.S. v. Cohen, case number 1:18-cr-00602, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Additional reporting by Mike LaSusa and Pete Brush. Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
Update: The headline has been updated to clarify the reasons for Cohen's return to prison, and the article has been updated with details on Cohen's meeting with probation officers.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
