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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Law with June Grasso from Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer and fixer, will argue

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Speaker 1: in court tomorrow that his sudden return to prison is

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Speaker 1: illegal retaliation for his decision to write a tell all

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Speaker 1: book about his ex boss before the November election. Cohen,

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Speaker 1: who pleaded guilty in August of eighteen two crimes tied

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Speaker 1: in part to his work for Trump, sued on Monday,

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Speaker 1: accusing the Attorney General and the Bureau of Prisons director

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Speaker 1: of using a false justification to lock him up, joining

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Speaker 1: me as Bloomberg News legal reporter Eric Larson, A little

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Speaker 1: background first, Michael Cohen was serving a three year sentence

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Speaker 1: in prison. Why was he furloughed in the first place. Yes, so,

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Speaker 1: back in March, when the coronavirus pandemic was really getting

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Speaker 1: worse in New York and the prison where he's been

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Speaker 1: at is in New York, he like many other filed

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Speaker 1: a petition to get out of prison and serves the

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Speaker 1: rest of his term in home confinance. Eventually that was granted.

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Speaker 1: Um in May, he was put on furlough technically, so

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Speaker 1: he was sort of let out with an understanding that

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Speaker 1: shortly thereafter he would come in and and signed some

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Speaker 1: documents and serve the rest of the term, specifically in

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Speaker 1: home confinement. But he never did start that period of

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Speaker 1: home confinement, and when he attempted to is actually that's

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Speaker 1: the moment that they ended up detaining him and sending

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Speaker 1: him back to prison. This gets complicated, as many things

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Speaker 1: with Michael Cohen seemed to get complicated. What is he

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Speaker 1: saying in his papers? Why is he saying he was

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Speaker 1: sent back to prison? Because there was some reporting that

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Speaker 1: it was because he went out to dinner at a

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Speaker 1: restaurant in New York while he was furloughed, right, So

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Speaker 1: this this spute really has nothing to do with that.

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Speaker 1: You know, if he were photographs of dinner while he

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Speaker 1: was on furloughed, you know, that might make sense, because

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Speaker 1: he wasn't on home confinement. Yet. What he says this

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Speaker 1: is about is the book that he's writing about President Trump.

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Speaker 1: He says that he announced it essentially after he was

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Speaker 1: let off on furlough, and that after a judge allowed

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Speaker 1: a book by Trump niece Mary Trump to go forward,

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Speaker 1: he tweeted about it and offered support and again said

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Speaker 1: that he was going to be publishing his own book,

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Speaker 1: and then a few days after that he reported to

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Speaker 1: the Bureau of Prison to get details about his home confinement,

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Speaker 1: but before he could never get a chance to sign

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Speaker 1: that document. He says, three marshals came in and put

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Speaker 1: him in shackles and handcuffs and returned him to prison.

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Speaker 1: Now he's saying that this is happening specifically as retaliation

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Speaker 1: for his plan to write this book before the election,

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Speaker 1: which he has said is going to include new information

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Speaker 1: and new anecdotes about the president, and he says that

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Speaker 1: it's a violation of his First Amendment right. Did the

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Speaker 1: federal officials admit that they were requiring him to sign

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Speaker 1: a document that he wasn't going to publish a book

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Speaker 1: until after he was out of prison, It's not quite that.

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Speaker 1: What the Bureau of Prison says is that for the

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Speaker 1: terms of his home of confinement, they asked him to

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Speaker 1: sign a document that restricted him from communicating with the

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Speaker 1: press in any way, including through books. It also required

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Speaker 1: him to ask his family and friends also not to

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Speaker 1: post about him, and that he would not have asked

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Speaker 1: us to social media. And he told them that this

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Speaker 1: Bureau of Prisons meeting He says that this would restrict

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Speaker 1: him from finishing his book, and he needed for their

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Speaker 1: details on how he was supposed to publish his book

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Speaker 1: while also signing this agreement, and that's again when they

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Speaker 1: came in and detained him. So he's saying that this

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Speaker 1: is specifically a special document that was created just for him,

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Speaker 1: and the Bureau of Prison says that he refused to

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Speaker 1: sign it, and he says that never happens. Do you

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Speaker 1: know whether people are asked often by the Bureau of

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Speaker 1: Prisons to sign a document that they, you know, won't

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Speaker 1: be involved with the media. It doesn't look like there's

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Speaker 1: ever been anything that's broad, at least not that that

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Speaker 1: we've seen. He saying that this is a very overbroad

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Speaker 1: and specific for him. He even says that the part

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Speaker 1: of the document where they inserted this language had hypographical

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Speaker 1: errors and had sort of been typed up in a hurry,

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Speaker 1: they suggest, And the Bureau of Prisons did say in

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Speaker 1: a statement afterwards that they had told him that he

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Speaker 1: needed to get pre approval for media interviews, and he

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Speaker 1: said that's simply not. What it said, is that that

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Speaker 1: there was no communication whatsoever allowed the press, including through books.

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Speaker 1: So there's some dispute there between the government and Michael

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Speaker 1: Cohen regarding what they were actually asking him to do.

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Speaker 1: But either way, he says that he would have signed

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Speaker 1: it to avoid going back to prison, but he says

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Speaker 1: they never even gave him that chance. And fourth, now

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Speaker 1: he has filed this lawsuit to get out of prison

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Speaker 1: immediately and returned back to home confinement where he can

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Speaker 1: finish his book, which he says he wants to release

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Speaker 1: by September. He says that he's been placed in solitary

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Speaker 1: confinement without access to a computer or his manuscript. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he says he's he's in solitary confined and that's his

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Speaker 1: lawyer said in the filing. And it wouldn't be too

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Speaker 1: surprising because he does claim that his health is at

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Speaker 1: risk from the coronavirus in that prison. In fact, the

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Speaker 1: Bureau of Prisons agreed with that assessment when they agreed

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Speaker 1: to let him go, So it could be that they

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Speaker 1: are keeping him there for, according to them, for their

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Speaker 1: own his own safety. We might find out more about

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Speaker 1: that at the hearing tomorrow on Cohen's emergency motion for

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Speaker 1: a restraining order against the government and to be released.

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Speaker 1: Do I understand that the a c l U is

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Speaker 1: helping to represent him. Yes, of course, the a c

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Speaker 1: l U. They are big defenders of the First Amendment.

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Speaker 1: This is essentially going to boil down to a First

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Speaker 1: Amendment case. You know, the a c l U has

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Speaker 1: classed with a Trump administration on a lot of fronts,

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Speaker 1: So it's not too surprising that they have picked this up,

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Speaker 1: especially since we're talking about another book that might be

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Speaker 1: very interesting to voters for the election and just what

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Speaker 1: it rep resents, very broadily about the rights of Americans,

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Speaker 1: the First Amendent rights and political speech and allegations that

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Speaker 1: the government could you know, retaliate against someone and essentially

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Speaker 1: put them behind bars for trying to essentially criticize the president?

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Speaker 1: Is the way to a c l you were sort

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Speaker 1: of framing this year, Eric, does Cohen have a publisher

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Speaker 1: a book deal? You know? I don't know. I was

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Speaker 1: going to ask Simon and Schustar. I don't. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming he must because he's claiming that this book

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Speaker 1: is going to talk about what happened behind the scenes

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Speaker 1: when he represented Trump, as opposed to Bolton's book, which

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Speaker 1: told what happened behind the scenes in the Oval office

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Speaker 1: and Mary Trump's book, which told what happened behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes when Trump was young. So there seems to be

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Speaker 1: a lot of effort to stop books about President Trump

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Speaker 1: before the election. Yeah, I can see how Cohen's book

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Speaker 1: could really still a gaps here in terms of answering

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Speaker 1: a lot of questions about what went on at some organization,

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Speaker 1: and of course all of those allegations about hush money payments.

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Speaker 1: You know, the accounts that he pleaded guilty to were

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Speaker 1: for past evasion, and also campaign finance violations related to

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Speaker 1: those hush payments, and putting to the porn actress Joormy

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Speaker 1: Daniels who was playing to have had a sexual encounter

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Speaker 1: with Somemp. So there's clearly a lot of information that

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Speaker 1: that he could have access to that he could be

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Speaker 1: putting in the in this book that you know, wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have appeared in John Bolton as or Married Trump. But

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Speaker 1: this is something he has some real inside information on,

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Speaker 1: and he hinted at that in his congressional testimony as well.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Eric. That's Eric Lawson, Bloomberg Legal reporter. I'm June

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Speaker 1: Grosso and this is Bloomberg