Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, was taken back into federal custody Thursday and is returning to prison, his lawyer said.
Cohen was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals after arriving at a New York federal court Thursday morning to sign home confinement documents, said his lawyer Jeffrey Levine.
Levine said authorities told Cohen he had failed to consent to the monitoring agreement following his release from prison due to coronavirus concerns.
Law enforcement officials said Cohen refused to sign documents prohibiting him from interacting with the media or writing a book. He was slated to be sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., his lawyer said, but was in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.
“Today, Michael Cohen refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said.
The development comes days after Cohen was photographed at a restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The image was splashed across the cover of the New York Post.
Cohen was released from federal prison in May. He was serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to what a federal judge called a “veritable smorgasbord” of criminal conduct, including making secret payments to women who claimed they had affairs with Trump, lying to Congress about the president’s business dealings with Russia and failing to report millions of dollars in income.
Cohen was initially set to be released from federal lockup in Otisville, New York, in November 2021. He had served just over a year of his sentence when he was released early.
“I am so glad to be home and back with my family,” Cohen tweeted at the time. “There is so much I want to say and intend to say. But now is not the right time. Soon. Thank you to all my friends and supporters.”
Adiel Kaplan contributed.
