Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen back at NY fed prison in dispute over release conditions

Michael Cohen, who had served as President Donald Trump's loyal personal attorney and fixer, remained in federal custody Friday following a dispute over conditions of his early release due to coronavirus fears within the federal prison system.

Cohen, who had been furloughed to home confinement in May, was moved back to a federal prison in Otisville, New York.

On Thursday, prison officials said Cohen was taken into custody after he "refused the conditions of his home confinement" during a meeting with federal authorities. Officials were finalizing Cohen's processing to home confinement as part of the U.S. Probation Office's Federal Location Monitoring program.

Asked whether Cohen might be furloughed again, officials said in an email that the inmate's "projected release date" is Nov. 22, 2021. They did not elaborate.

Lanny Davis, Cohen's legal adviser, said Cohen was meeting with authorities Thursday to go over final conditions of home confinement and to obtain an ankle bracelet monitor when he balked at a required provision that he not speak to the press or pursue a previously announced book project during the term of his sentence.

The press and book prohibitions, Davis said, were part of an eight-point list presented to Cohen at the meeting that had been previously scheduled. Davis said officials departed the meeting to discuss Cohen's disagreement with the press and book prohibitions, only to have U.S. marshals return about an hour later carrying shackles.

At that point, Davis said, Cohen relented, saying that he would agree to all conditions. "That's when one of the marshals said, 'It's out of our hands.' "

The action came just hours after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump cannot block a New York City prosecutor from obtaining the president's tax returns and financial records as part of an investigation into hush-money payments to women during the 2016 White House race. Cohen has said that the president directed him to make the payments to the women who had claimed affairs with Trump.

Because Cohen's meeting with probation officials had been previously scheduled, Davis said that he had no information to indicate that the action against Cohen was linked to the court decision. Yet it did not prevent the attorney from openly speculating: "Somebody on high is involved here."

Davis said that Cohen did not believe he had violated any conditions of release prior to Thursday, including his venture out to dinner last week, a scene that was captured by the New York Post.

"He was never told that it was a violation," Davis said of the dinner outing.

Before his furlough, Cohen was held at the prison camp in Otisville, where he was serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to coordinating payoffs to buy the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The women said they had sexual affairs with Trump before he was elected. Cohen insisted he acted at the direction of Trump, who has denied the affairs.

Cohen has since been disbarred. He had been set for release in November 2021.

More: Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to be released Thursday amid coronavirus fears

More: Trump attorney Michael Cohen out of prison

The coronavirus has cut a deadly swath through the federal prison system, where nearly 100 inmates and one staffer have died. Thousands more have been infected. The risk prompted the authorities to approve 6,798 inmates for early release since March.

In addition to Cohen, Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, also has been released from prison to home confinement amid the virus threat.

Manafort, 71, was serving a combined sentence of 7? years in prison from two criminal cases that resulted from the special counsel investigation on Russia's election meddling in 2016.

After helping Trump claim the Republican nomination for president at the party's 2016 convention, Manafort was convicted in Virginia for a scheme to defraud banks and taxpayers out of millions of dollars he had amassed through illicit lobbying. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges of not disclosing his lobbying work and tampering with witnesses in a related Washington, D.C., case.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-President Trump lawyer Michael Cohen back in federal custody