Not sure if this it's necessary to repost this but perhaps it will get the awful taste of Maggie Haberman out of my mouth. Jeralyn Merritt knowledgably discusses this at her blog - TalkLeft. Jeralyn is a well respected and experienced criminal defense attorney.
Here's a fuller explanation by one of the best defense attorneys in the country, Jeralyn Merritt, at her blog TalkLeft. Which really isn't all that left in today's world:
Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was blindsided today by the U.S. Marshals and taken into custody, to await return to a federal prison.
Cohen was furloughed by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons back in May, due to the coronavirus. A furlough is temporary. BOP decides what happens when it's over. Sometimes you go back to prison. Sometimes you go home to serve the remainder of your sentence on home confinement.
BOP decided Cohen could serve the rest of his sentence on home confinement and not return to prison when the furlough was up.
Home confinement has restrictions. The conditions are spelled out in a agreement between you and BOP. Cohen apparently had not yet begun his home confinement because he and BOP had not agreed on the terms.
According to Cohen's lawyer, Cohen and his lawyer went down to the U.S. Marshal's office today to sign the agreement.
But Cohen balked at a condition that he can't have contact with the media or write a book. Cohen has been very public about his book deal and that he's been writing it. His lawyer wanted to negotiate the book and media restrictions with the Marshal's Service, and instead, they took Cohen into custody claiming he rejected the terms of home confinement, and since the furlough was over, he had to go back to prison to finish his sentence.
So Cohen tonight is at MDC in Brooklyn where he will await designation to a new facility. When he was sentenced, BOP honored the Judge's recommendation that he go to the camp at Otisville, but now it's between BOP and Cohen. Cohen's lawyers may file a motion with the Judge protesting the arrest, but Cohen's judge doesn't regard him in a favorable light. (Cohen had requested compassionate release from the judge before asking for a furlough and the judge was quite emphatic that would not happen.)
Now about that dinner out . . . Cohen was on a furlough. Clearly, he thought he was allowed to do so otherwise he wouldn't have sat outside on the restaurant's patio for hours. Is he allowed to do so?
Here is a recent furlough contract with conditions.[link in original article] Of course, there's a place for special conditions and we don't know if Cohen had any. But the conditions we do see don't say he can't go out to dinner -- they say he can't travel outside the "extended area" of his residence. Since the restaurant was very close to his apartment, I doubt he could be considered to have left the "extended area." In any event, I think it's vague and for that reason, any ambiguity should be resolved against the drafter, which is BOP.
But, would the Marshals have been so adamant about refusing to even discuss the media and book restrictions had they not been embarrassed by the big photo of Cohen enjoying himself at an expensive restaurant while on a medical furlough? According to one article I read, Cohen's lawyer said today, draw your own conclusion.
Or, did William Barr order Cohen's arrest to prevent another scathing book about Trump to be released before the election? The courts didn't stop John Bolton or Mary Trump, so maybe Barr figured it was his job to do so to protect Trump. (I don't think Trump is clever enough to come up with such a plan on his own).
Anyway, tongues will wag about this one.
