Michael Cohen back in federal custody after being released to home confinement over COVID-19 concerns

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ABC News(NEW YORK) — BY: AARON KATERSKY and IVAN PEREIRAMichael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, was taken back into federal custody Thursday, his attorney Jeffrey Levine said.Cohen was released in May from federal custody to his Manhattan home on “furlough,” according to the Bureau of Prisons, after the Department of Justice released him and other prisoners from federal detention facilities due to coronavirus concerns.Cohen, 53, was in Manhattan federal court Thursday to arrange the conditions of his home confinement. When he scoffed at least one condition, he was taken back into custody, a source said.”On May 21, 2020, Mr. Cohen was placed on furlough pending placement on home confinement,” a Bureau of Prisons official said in a statement. “Today, Michael Cohen refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility.”Cohen was spotted last week out of his home and dining at a Park Avenue restaurant with a group of people, but it wasn’t clear if this was related to him being remanded.In 2018 Cohen admitted to violating campaign finance laws over payments made to women who alleged having affairs with Trump years before his 2016 presidential campaign, and he admitted lying to Congress while under oath about a Moscow real estate project Trump and his company pursued while Trump was trying to secure the Republican nomination for president.Cohen was originally serving his three-year sentence in New York State’s Otisville Correctional Facility and was slated to be released from custody in 2021.

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