Michael Cohen Released From Upstate Federal Prison Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen is being released from an upstate New York prison Friday.
Cohen is being let out early after 14 inmates and seven staff members at the federal prison in Otisville tested positive for coronavirus.
He is serving a three-year sentence for campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress. He was originally scheduled to be released late next year, but will now serve out the rest of his term at home.
Cohen's release comes as prison advocates and congressional leaders have been pressing the Justice Department for weeks to release at-risk inmates ahead of a potential outbreak, arguing that the public health guidance to stay 6 feet away from other people is nearly impossible behind bars.
Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons earlier this month to increase the use of home confinement and expedite the release of eligible high-risk inmates, beginning at three prisons identified as coronavirus hot spots. Otisville is not one of those facilities.
As of Thursday, 473 federal inmates and 279 Bureau of Prisons staff members had tested positive for coronavirus at facilities across the U.S. Eighteen inmates have died since late March.
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Many federal inmates have been seeking home confinement as the number of coronavirus cases grows in the federal prison system, but advocates have accused the Bureau of Prisons of moving too slowly to release inmates. The Bureau of Prisons said it had moved more than 1,000 inmates to home confinement since March 26, when Barr first issued a directive to increase its use in late March. The agency said it is a "tremendous logistical lift that was accomplished through the marshaling of all of BOP's resources."
A federal judge had denied Cohen's attempt for an early release to home confinement after serving 10 months in prison and said in a ruling earlier this month that it "appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle." But the Bureau of Prisons can take action to move him to home confinement without a judicial order.
Cohen began serving his sentence last May and was scheduled to be released from prison in November 2021.
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Other high-profile inmates have also been released as the number of coronavirus cases soars. Last week, a judge ordered Michael Avenatti — the attorney who rose to fame representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against Trump — to be temporarily freed from a federal jail in New York City and stay at a friend's house in Los Angeles. Avenatti had said he was at high risk of getting the coronavirus because he had a recent bout with pneumonia and his cellmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan was removed due to flu-like symptoms.
Former New York state Senate leader Dean Skelos, 72, who was also serving a sentence at Otisville, is also expected to be released soon from prison to home confinement after testing positive for the coronavirus, prosecutors told a judge Wednesday.
CNN first reported Cohen was being released to home confinement.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
