AP
Ex-Trump lawyer turned witness against him loses bid for release from probation
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and the key witness against him in his New York state criminal prosecution lost his bid Friday for early release from probation following a three-year prison sentence after federal prosecutors said he’s lying again.
U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan cited Michael Cohen’s recent comments in a book and television appearance as reasons to conclude that early release from court supervision would not ensure rehabilitation and deterrence from future crimes.
The credibility of Cohen — who served as Trump’s personal lawyer from his early 2017 inauguration until his 2018 arrest — will be scrutinized if a jury ever hears the state criminal case filed against Trump over payments Cohen says he made on Trump’s behalf to silence two women who claimed they had affairs with Trump before the Republican became president.
In court papers, federal prosecutors highlighted Cohen’s recent public comments in arguing against early release from probation rules that, among other things, restrict his travel, subject him to visits and scrutiny from a probation officer and ban him from owning firearms.
Prosecutors say Cohen falsely wrote in a book that he did not engage in tax fraud, that the charges were “all 100 percent inaccurate” and that he was “threatened” by prosecutors to plead guilty. They noted that under oath at his plea hearings he admitted the crimes and said he was not threatened or forced to plead guilty. They said he also lied in a March television interview. …
https://apnews.com/article/trump-cohen-witness-probation-8eda2853ac3a5e54eb368bb25ee84305