Michael Cohen returns to New York City home after early prison release
President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen returned to his Manhattan home Thursday after his early release from federal prison. CBS News was outside his Park Avenue residence when he returned.
Cohen is expected to serve the remainder of his sentence on home confinement, a source familiar with the matter told CBS News. The release comes more than a month after Cohen was originally scheduled to return home.
"I am so glad to be home and back with my family. There is so much I want to say and intend to say. But now is not the right time. Soon," Cohen tweeted Thursday. "Thank you to all my friends and supporters."
Cohen was first informed in April that after a 14-day quarantine, he would serve the remainder of his term at home due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Cohen is currently incarcerated at Otisville Federal Correctional Institution, which is located about 70 miles outside of New York City.
In March, Cohen had sought to have his sentence reduced or to serve the balance of his sentence in home confinement because of the burgeoning threat posed by COVID-19. The court denied his application, claiming the request was "just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle" — but since then, the Bureau of Prisons has taken more aggressive action to stop the spread of the coronavirus within prisons.
Other prominent political figures including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and attorney Michael Avenatti have already been released to home confinement due to fears of the coronavirus. More than 2,900 inmates have been released to home confinement since Attorney General William Barr's original directive on March 26, according to the BOP.
In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years for financial and campaign finance crimes and lying to Congress about his involvement in an effort to build a "Trump Tower" in Moscow during the 2016 campaign. The campaign finance violations involved his arrangement of hush-money payments to two women during the 2016 campaign regarding their alleged affairs with Mr. Trump.
Clare Hymes and Justin Carissimo contributed reporting.