President Trump's former personal lawyer — and longtime fixer — Michael Cohen will be released from prison to serve the remainder of his three-year sentence in home confinement due to coronavirus concerns, CNN first reported and Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis confirmed to Axios.
Flashback: Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to multiple financial crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations.
- He has been serving his sentence at the federal prison camp in Otisville, New York, where 14 inmates and seven staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, per CNN.
Between the lines: Cohen's pending release comes as the Justice Department's inspector general is assessing federal prisons to determine whether the coronavirus is being properly mitigated.
- The Bureau of Prisons has culled its prison populations by releasing nonviolent and medically susceptible inmates to home confinement in response to the pandemic. Several state-run jails have released prisoners to fight the spread of the virus.
