Michael Cohen, US President Donald
Trump's former personal attorney, has been sent back to a prison
in upstate New York after questioning a gag order as a condition
of serving his criminal sentence under home confinement, Cohen's
lawyer said.
Cohen, 53, had attended a meeting with probation officers in
Manhattan on Thursday when he was presented with a list of
conditions for home confinement, including that he not engage
with news media outlets, according to his lawyer, Jeffrey
Levine.
After questioning it, Cohen was shackled, sent to a
Manhattan jail and then transferred to the Federal Correctional
Institution in Otisville, about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of
New York City, where Levine said he is now being held under
quarantine and in solitary confinement.
Cohen had been released from Otisville in May due to
concerns over possible exposure to the novel coronavirus.
He had completed about a year of a three-year sentence for
his role in hush money payments to two women, as well as for
financial crimes and lying to Congress about plans to build a
Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen had originally been eligible for
release in November 2021.