Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, is among the several inmates across the nation that will be released from incarceration amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Associated Press, Cohen, who is currently serving a three-year sentence for lying to Congress, as well as for various counts of tax fraud and campaign finance violations is expected to serve out the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.
He will be quarantined for 14 days before being released from FCI Otisville in New York, where he is currently being held. The report notes that 14 inmates and seven staff members at FCI Otisville have tested positive for the deadly virus.
Cohen was originally scheduled to be released from prison in November 2021, but has been seeking an early release into home confinement as the pandemic made its way to the United States.
As the AP notes, a federal judge had shut down Cohen’s call for an early release, saying in a ruling earlier this month that his request “appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle.” However, the Bureau of Prisons can opt to move him even without a judicial order.
As CNN reports, the Bureau of Prisons has been facing criticisms for how it handled the virus as it made its way through often overcrowded prisons, which also grappled with insufficient protective equipment in unhygienic conditions.
According to data from the Bureau of Prisons, currently, some 473 federal inmates have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, alongside 279 staff members. So far, 18 federal inmates have died as a result of the virus.
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