Michael Cohen Arrested, Former Donald Trump Lawyer In Custody

Michael Cohen has been arrested. According to a tweet from Reuters, a witness reported seeing Cohen — the former personal attorney for President Donald Trump — taken into custody by U.S. Marshals Thursday. The report was later confirmed by Cohen’s attorney.

Details regarding Cohen’s arrest were not immediately available. According to CNBC News, Cohen’s lawyer, Jeffrey Levine, said his arrest could be related to a newspaper photo showing him eating a New York City restaurant the previous week.

“His lawyer also said that before Cohen was taken into custody, authorities told him he failed to agree to monitoring agreement, and will be transferred to a secure institution,” CNBC News reported.

Cohen was recently granted furlough — having previously been denied compassionate release in March — due to a coronavirus outbreak at the federal facility in which he was imprisoned. As part of that agreement, he is supposed to remain incarcerated at his home for the duration of his three-year sentence.

Fox News’ John Roberts tweeted that Cohen was taken into custody Thursday morning, amid discussions with the Southern District of New York centering on “the terms and conditions for home confinement.” Roberts also stated that Cohen is currently housed at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center and that associates confirm he was being fitted with an ankle bracelet monitoring device.

The New York Post reported July 3 that Cohen was spotted at a restaurant in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The Post quoted former Bureau of Prisons official Cameron Lindsay, who said Cohen’s night out “doesn’t look right” and might be considered a violation of the terms of his furlough.

Cohen and his wife, Laura, were seen eating outside French restaurant Le Bilboquet — located around the corner from his Park Avenue residence — with another couple. The Post reported that the group was there for around an hour, and they were the last customers to leave, departing around 11:30 p.m.

As detailed in the report, Cohen was required to provide a furlough address as part of his furlough application and to certify his understanding that he was only allowed to be “in the area of the destination… and at ordinary stopovers or points on a direct route” to or from the address provided.

Cohen’s trip out to dinner may have violated this and other stipulations of his prison furlough. He was also required to affirm that he would not leave his furlough address without permission, “with exception of traveling to the furlough destination, and returning to the institution.”