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Michael Cohen Is Among Prisoners to Be Released Because of Virus Michael Cohen Is Among Prisoners to Be Released Because of Virus
(about 7 hours later)
Michael D. Cohen, the disgraced former lawyer for President Trump, was among some of the inmates at a federal prison camp in upstate New York who were told they would be released into home confinement because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, several defense lawyers said on Friday.Michael D. Cohen, the disgraced former lawyer for President Trump, was among some of the inmates at a federal prison camp in upstate New York who were told they would be released into home confinement because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, several defense lawyers said on Friday.
The inmates were all serving sentences at the minimum-security camp, which is attached to a medium-security federal prison in Otisville, N.Y., about 75 miles northwest of New York City. The federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to questions about the reported plan to allow some prisoners there to serve their sentences at home under supervision. The expected releases come about three weeks after Attorney General William P. Barr, who oversees the Bureau of Prisons, ordered a review to determine who among the country’s nearly 144,000 federal inmates could safely be furloughed to home confinement as the pandemic worsened.
Mr. Cohen is serving a three-year sentence for federal crimes. His lawyer, Roger B. Adler, said late Thursday that after two weeks in quarantine, Mr. Cohen would be granted release into home confinement by the Bureau of Prisons because of the virus risks. A week later, Mr. Barr directed prison officials to move more aggressively and expanded the criteria under which inmates could be released. According to the prison agency’s website, nearly 1,200 prisoners have been — after a required 14-day quarantine.
Lawyers for at least six other inmates in the Otisville camp said their clients had also been informed they would be furloughed to lessen the possibility of them contracting the virus. Some were told they would finish their sentences under house arrest. Others were told that they might be required to return to the prison camp. The prison camp inmates set to be released upstate were serving sentences at a minimum-security camp that is attached to a medium-security federal prison and detention center in Otisville, about 75 miles northwest of New York City.
Mr. Cohen and the other inmates were informed they would be held in quarantine at Otisville’s medium-security prison for 14 days before being released into their homes, where they would continue to be under the supervision of federal probation officers, the lawyers said. Officers began moving the majority of the inmates in the camp — more than 100 prisoners — on Friday afternoon from that dormitory setting into the medium-security prison in anticipation of possible release into home confinement, a prison official said.
Last month, a federal judge in Manhattan had rejected a request by Mr. Cohen, 53, for such release after Mr. Cohen cited his health and the risk of exposure to the coronavirus in prison. His more recent request, made to the Bureau of Prisons, was successful, Mr. Adler said. At Otisville, 16 inmates and nine staff members have tested positive for the virus, according to the agency; they are among 465 inmates and 296 staff members in federal prisons nationwide with confirmed cases, according to its website.
Mr. Cohen began serving his sentence last May at the minimum-security camp at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville. He had pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, financial crimes and other offenses in connection with a scheme to pay hush money to buy the silence of two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. The president has denied the affairs. A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, Scott Taylor, said he could not comment on Mr. Cohen’s status or the suitability of any particular inmate for home confinement or compassionate release. He would not say how many prisoners have been released so far to home confinement from Otisville.
The Bureau of Prisons has said that more than 470 federal inmates and over 275 prison staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus nationwide, including at least 14 inmates and seven staff members at the camp in Otisville. Another prominent Otisville inmate, Dean G. Skelos, the former Republican State Senate majority leader who has been serving a four-year sentence in a corruption case, was also expected to be approved for furlough by the Bureau of Prisons, prosecutors said this week in court papers. Mr. Skelos had tested positive for the coronavirus and has been in quarantine, the government wrote.
Michael Levenson contributed reporting. Mr. Cohen, 53, is serving a three-year sentence for federal crimes, including campaign finance violations as part of a scheme to pay hush money to two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump, which the president has denied.
On Thursday night, Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Roger B. Adler, said that, after two weeks in quarantine, his client would be granted release into home confinement because of the virus risks.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the agency’s decision to let Mr. Cohen serve his sentence at his home in Manhattan, which was reported on Thursday by CNN.
Lawyers for at least six other inmates in the Otisville camp said their clients also had been informed they would be furloughed to lessen the possibility of their contracting the virus. Some were told they would finish their sentences in home confinement. Others were told they were being furloughed to home confinement, meaning they might be required to return to the prison camp.
One defense lawyer, Steve Zissou, said his client was informed that “the entire camp was told last night to ‘pack up — we’re shutting down the camp.’”
Mr. Taylor, the prisons spokesman, on Friday morning denied that the site was being shuttered. “It is not true that the camp is closing, nor is it true that all the inmates at the camp are being moved out,” he said.
Defense lawyers said Mr. Cohen and the other inmates were told they would be held in quarantine at Otisville’s medium-security prison for 14 days to ensure they do not have the virus before being sent to their homes.
On Friday afternoon, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman, Susan Allison, acknowledged that the camp inmates were being moved to the medium-security prison and would be screened for eligibility for home confinement. She said all were being preemptively quarantined in case they qualify.
Last month, Judge William H. Pauley III of Federal District Court in Manhattan rejected a request by Mr. Cohen for release on grounds of his health and the risk of exposure to the coronavirus in prison. Mr. Cohen’s projected release date was November 2021, according to the prison agency’s website.
In a letter to the court, Mr. Adler had argued that “Mr. Cohen has had two hospitalizations, and a pre-existing condition of pulmonary issues” and that a “sentence of 36 months should not end up being a capital crime depriving my client of his life.”
The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan opposed Mr. Cohen’s request, arguing that the Bureau of Prisons had made “significant efforts to prepare to respond, should there in fact be any cases of Covid-19 at the facility where Cohen is housed.”
Judge Pauley, on March 24, in denying Mr. Cohen’s request, wrote, “That Cohen would seek to single himself out for release to home confinement appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle.”
Mr. Adler said Mr. Cohen’s release was granted after a direct request was made to the agency. “I salute the compassion of the Bureau of Prisons,” Mr. Adler said on Thursday.
Michael Levenson and Katie Benner contributed reporting.