Michael Cohen released from home confinement, vows continued cooperation
Michael Cohen was released from home confinement restrictions Monday morning — as he vowed to continue to hand over information about “dirty deeds,” he said outside Manhattan federal court.
Former President Donald Trump’s ex-personal attorney was released from federal prison on furlough in May 2020 after serving more than a year of a three-year sentence for tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to Congress.
He was placed on home confinement after being cut loose from Otisville Correctional Facility as part of an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 behind bars.
Speaking to reporters outside the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Monday, Cohen vowed that he would continue to provide information about alleged crimes of which he has knowledge.
“I will continue to provide information, testimony, documents and my full cooperation on all ongoing investigations to ensure others are held responsible for their dirty deeds,” he said.
Cohen said his release does not “negate” the crimes he committed, which he claimed were at the direction of Trump, yet slammed prosecutors, the Justice Department and the deceased judge who sentenced him to prison.
“My release today … also does not negate the behavior of the Justice Department, [Trump’s Attorney General] Bill Barr, the Southern District of New York prosecutors, Judge William H. Pauley III or Donald himself in my initial incarceration and prosecution,” he said.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018, in part for arranging hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal, who claimed they slept with Trump. The former president has denied the relationships.
In July 2020, Cohen was briefly sent back to prison after The Post photographed him dining out in Manhattan while he was still on home confinement.
A judge sprang Cohen days later, ruling that the disgraced attorney was being retaliated against for exercising his First Amendment rights by promoting on social media a tell-all book he was writing about his experiences with Trump.
On Monday, Cohen slammed the Justice Department for that fiasco, calling it an “unconstitutional action.”
As he walked away from the courthouse, he said he feels “great” to be a free man — and that he intends to go out with his family for Thanksgiving.
Cohen has been spotted dining out in Manhattan a number of times recently — including once with rapper Kanye West, who donned a white prosthetic mask during a lunchtime coffee meetup at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue.
After the Oct. 19 coffee date, Cohen told Page Six that West wore the mask for privacy — but the ploy backfired.
“The purpose [of the mask] was so that people would not recognize him … the first 10 minutes we sat down, he was mobbed by people … who wanted photos, and to say hello. So he put on this mask to give him some anonymity, which interestingly enough, did not really work,” Cohen said.
