Michael Cohen does the Supreme Court asked to allow him to sue former President Donald Trump for alleged retaliation and violations of his constitutional rights.
Cohen, who was Trump’s fixer and lawyer for years, was convicted three years in prison in 2018 on charges including campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. He was released in early 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but was jailed again and placed in solitary confinement for two weeks after announcing plans to write a book critical of his former boss.
A federal judge later ordered Cohen’s release and rebuked the Trump administration for ‘retaliation,’ The New York Times reported.
Cohen first sued Trump and former Attorney General Bill Barr in 2021 for violating his rights, but the lawsuit was later dismissed by a judge. An appeals court agreed with that ruling.
Still, Cohen urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to intervene in his favor.
“When Cohen, who was writing a book critical of Trump, did not immediately agree to waive his right to free speech, he was summarily sent back to prison and thrown into solitary confinement,” wrote his lawyer, Jon- Michael Dougherty, in a filing with the Supreme Court.
“As it stands, this case represents the principle that presidents and their subordinates can jail critics of the executive branch without consequences,” he continued. “That cannot be the law in the country the Founders created.”
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
Trump has won a series of legal victories in recent weeks.
The Supreme Court backed his claims for broad immunity for any action he took while in office, leaving his various criminal cases in chaos for months ahead of the November election. That ruling prompted the judge who oversaw his hush-money case in Manhattan — where he was convicted on all 34 charges — to delay his sentencing for months while he considers the impact it will have on the jury’s findings.
The Times notes that the Supreme Court has long relied on the precedent that presidents are immune from civil lawsuits for official actions during their time in office, which could make Cohen’s request a gamble. But there are limited circumstances in which such lawsuits are permitted.
Cohen said Trump’s actions warranted such a response.
“No president should ever be allowed to weaponize the Justice Department,” he said in a speech rack in the media on Wednesday. “It is un-American and a matter ripe for the SCOTUS.”