Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen to serve jail term at home amid pandemic

US President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen will reportedly be released from the prison to serve his remaining sentence in home confinement amid pandemic. Often described as Trump’s “fixer”, Cohen will go under a 14-days quarantined before heading for the home confinement as several inmates and staff at the prison tested positive for the coronavirus.

Cohen, who is currently locked up at FCI Otisville in New York, had pleaded guilty to several charges including campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress. Attorney General William Barr had ordered the Bureau of Prisons to release high-risk inmates at the earliest starting from three prisons identified as coronavirus hotspots but Otisville was not among those.

Advocates accused the Bureau of Prisons of moving too slowly to release the inmates from high-risk facilities but the agency blamed it to “tremendous logistical shift” caused due to marshalling of all of BOP’s resources. Prison and detention centres have become a major concern for security officials across the world since the crowded facilities are considered at high risk of COVID-19. 

Read: AP Source: Ex-Trump Lawyer Cohen Being Released From Prison

ICE releasing detainees

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are reportedly considering the release of some detainees due to high risk of infection following positive cases among detainees and workers. President Donald Trump had called for an aggressive crackdown on violators of immigration laws but the pandemic has forced officials to rethink the policy for the time being.

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House Representative Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Lofgren wrote to ICE on April 7 demanding answers from them on how they are planning to keep their detainees safe from the deadly virus after COVID-19 cases being reported from detention facilities. Nadler and Lofgren, in the letter, said that a massive outbreak of COVID-19 in detention facilities is inevitable without a swift reduction in the number of detainees.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the United States and has infiltrated ICE detention facilities, we reiterate our request that ICE release individuals...who pose no threat to public safety or national security, particularly those who are at heightened risk of death or serious illness from COVID-19,” said the duo.

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(With AP inputs | Image source: AP)