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| Like Peas in a Pod |
Manafort is out. Stone is out before he ever went in. Trump is fighting claw and fang to see that Michael Flynn never has his day of reckoning. Now, despite Bill Barr's best efforts to keep him locked up and muzzled, former Trump fixer, Michael Cohen, is getting out, again.
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of Michael Cohen to home confinement, agreeing with his lawyers that he was wrongly sent back to prison after making public statements critical of President Donald Trump.
Cohen should be released by Friday at 2 pm, the judge said.
Cohen's lawyers said during a telephone hearing that prison officials violated his constitutional right of free expression on July 9 by ending his home confinement and returning him to the federal penitentiary in Otisville, New York, after longtime Trump fixer and confidant Cohen said a book about his experiences working closely with the president would be published in the fall.The judge hearing the motion to release Cohen saw straight through the Trump administration's ploy.
A week after tweeting that he was finishing a tell-all book about Trump, Cohen was told by a probation officer that he would have to agree to a complete ban on speaking in public, including by publishing a book, as a condition of continued home confinement, according to court documents. He was asked to sign a form that included this provision: "No engagement of any kind with the media, including print, tv, film, books, or any other form of media/news. Prohibition from all social media platforms."
The form said it was intended "to avoid glamorizing or bringing publicity to your status as a sentenced inmate serving a custodial term in the community."
"I've never seen such a clause in 21 years of being a judge and sentencing people," said federal District Judge Alvin Hellerstein. "How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?"
6 comments:
Friday at 2, eh? Plenty of time for an Epstein-style "suicide."
Cap
That thought did cross my mind, Cap. Trump knows what Cohen knows about Trump from their years together. Cohen may have graduated from America's absolutely worst law school (or so they say) but I'm guessing he remembers a lot including where they buried the bodies. He should also be bright enough to know what info is and is not privileged. Be that as it may I doubt Cohen will be submitting his "kiss and tell" manuscript to the White House for pre-clearance and I suspect he may be willing to give up his licence if he hasn't already been disbarred.
What Cohen reveals in his book should give Trump some idea of the information he has handed over to New York prosecutors back when he was a cooperating witness. Cohen just might be able to gore the ox in time for undecided voters to reconsider who they'll support.
While pockets of resistance continue, the prosecutors actions in Cohen's case demonstrate how thoroughly tRumpism has infiltrated the mechanics of US law .... and as to 'order' .... the test in Portland is going well.
Hanging chads and/or 9-11 marks the beginning of the steep decline, twenty years later we are witnessing the endgame.
I'm thinking the same thing, Cap. Those that don't want him out OR his book published may not be "made" members but they still have and implement the same tactics.
All of these fine folks operating in the aura of DJT, both past and present have to tread lightly otherwise the solution does seem to end up being rather final, doesn't it?
There are so many aspects of American life that many of thought were etched in stone, are now being shredded under this current administration and their enablers.
I keep seeing Barr as the pompous character in old cartoons just after smoking an exploding cigar.
A lot of speculation in these comments and, damn it, I can't dismiss any of them out of hand. Today little is predictable and much of what is underway defies comprehension.
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