The Supreme Court will not wade into Michael Cohen’s long-waged war against former President Trump, declining Monday to revive his lawsuit seeking damages for retaliation during his prison sentence.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Cohen was serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance and other crimes — some of which he maintains he committed at Trump’s direction.
Due to health reasons that would be exacerbated by the virus, Cohen’s prison term was furloughed, and he was sent to home confinement.
But that didn’t last for long. Officials later ordered him back to prison and into solitary confinement after he raised issue with a release condition asking him to waive his ability to criticize Trump, who was president at the time.
A federal judge ruled to release Cohen again and said the former president’s ex-fixer suffered unconstitutional retaliation for wanting to critique Trump on social media and in a book. However, the judge later dismissed Cohen’s claim for damages over the incident.
“As it stands, this case represents the principle that presidents and their subordinates can lock away critics of the executive without consequence,” Cohen wrote in his request for the high court to hear his case.
Trump attorney Alina Habba said in the former president’s brief to the court that Cohen’s complaint is “entirely devoid of merit.” She also raised the possibility Cohen’s claim is barred by presidential immunity, a question the justices declined to weigh.
Once Trump’s loyal soldier, Cohen was exiled from the former president’s inner circle when federal law enforcement came knocking. He’s since become one of Trump’s loudest critics.
Cohen testified earlier year as a star witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against his former boss, which ended in a conviction in May, and took the stand in an earlier civil fraud trial against Trump and his business.
In a previous interview with The Hill, Cohen said his appeal to the justices was about deterrence. His experience, he said, was “merely a practice run” for the sweeping retribution Trump has vowed in a potential second term.
“Donald has opened up a Pandora’s box for future Trump 2.0s acting in the same autocratic manner,” Cohen said. “This writ of certiorari will be part of the process that would prevent any other U.S. citizen ever from being imprisoned because they refused to waive their First Amendment right or because they express criticism.”
The type of relief Cohen sought against Trump, various officials involved and the federal government itself for violating his constitutional rights is known as a Bivens claim. Over the past 44 years, the Supreme Court has turned away a dozen such lawsuits – making the ex-fixer’s request an uphill fight.
