Welcome back, Michael Cohen!
I helped expose some of Michael Cohen’s crimes, so I’m arguably one of the people who helped put him in prison. Now Cohen is being released from prison early, due to a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the prison system. He’ll finish the rest of his term under house arrest. Not that I get a vote in these things, but I’m fine with Cohen being released – with some caveats.
Michael Cohen was never violent to begin with, and he’s highly unlikely to commit additional crimes. In general, that’s a strong argument for a prisoner having the right to not be exposed to a deadly virus. Throw in the fact that Cohen is nearly halfway through his sentence, and the fact that he’s provided cooperation to New York State that was potentially going to eventually end up in a reduced sentence anyway, and it’s hard to argue against his release.
All that said, we keep seeing the release of high profile prisoners who have powerful attorneys. If Michael Cohen is going to be released early, so should every other prisoner who fits similar conditions of being nonviolent and highly unlikely to commit more crimes. To be clear, Roger Stone doesn’t fit that description.
After Roger Stone learned he was being criminally investigated, he threatened to murder a witness. After Stone was indicted, he threatened to shoot the judge. This represents a pattern. If Stone remains out of prison, he’ll likely commit more crimes. Stone was criminally conspiring against the United States with a representative of a foreign government to begin with. If he’s allowed to avoid prison due to the pandemic, he’ll likely enter into a new criminal conspiracy to try to rig the 2020 election. All prisoners deserve protections against coronavirus – but we’re not safe unless Stone is behind bars. Again, this is just my view, and I don’t get a vote on these things.
It’ll be interesting to see what Michael Cohen does after his release. Before going to prison, he became an outspoken critic of Donald Trump’s crime spree. Will Cohen be allowed to do things like use Twitter and do remote TV interviews while under house arrest? If so, his voice could end up having an impact on the 2020 election. But for all we know, he may not have these privileges. We’ll see. These are interesting times.
