A federal judge on Thursday suggested during a court hearing that prosecutors sent U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen back to prison as retaliation for planning to publish a book about the president just before the November election.
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Cohen was sent home from prison in May because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He was shackled again on July 9 after he questioned an agreement that barred him from publishing his book, engaging with news organizations and posting on social media.
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Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he had never seen in his 21 years on the bench a provision barring a prisoner from speaking to the media.
‘How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?’