Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and witness against him, denied release from probation

Michael Cohen, former President Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and the key witness against him in his New York state indictment, was denied early release from his probation following his three-year prison term Friday. 

U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan said that Cohen has continued to lie in recent comments, citing comments he made in a book and on television in March when he said he hadn’t committed tax fraud, his charges were “all 100 percent inaccurate” and that he was “threatened” by prosecutors into pleading guilty.   

Cohen is a regular on cable news problems, often giving his opinion on Trump. 

Cohen’s lawyer David M. Schwartz claimed he had “clearly demonstrated” his rehabilitation after being a “model prisoner” who had “substantially cooperated with all government authorities.” 

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In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to several charges, including tax evasion, campaign finance violations, lying to Congress and several banks to obtain campaign financing and was sentenced to three years in prison.

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New York prosecutors relied on Cohen’s testimony before indicting Trump earlier this year on 34 charges connected to alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal after federal prosecutors declined to bring charges against him. Trump has pleaded not guilty. 

Cohen has also spoken out against Trump in two memoirs: “Disloyal” in 2020 and “Revenge” in 2022. 

He worked as Trump’s personal lawyer for more than a decade. 

Cohen ended up serving nearly two-thirds of his three-year prison sentence at home due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

Cohen told the Associated Press he will issue a statement Monday. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.