President Donald Trump‘s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is to be released early from prison, due to coronavirus fears.
Mr Cohen was informed on Thursday, by the federal Bureau of Prisons, that he would be leaving early, his lawyer, Roger Adler told CNN.
The disgraced attorney is currently serving a three year sentence at the federal prison in Otisville, New York, that is due to end in November 2021.
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Mr Cohen will complete the remainder of his sentence in home confinement, after a 14-day quarantine period at the prison.
At the time of writing, 14 inmates and seven staff members have tested positive for Co-19 at the prison, according to CNN.
He pleaded guilty in 2018 to tax evasion and campaign finance violations, and reported to prison on 6 May 2019.
Mr Cohen said that he violated campaign finance rules, under the direction of Mr Trump, “for the principal purpose of influencing” the 2016 presidential election. The president denies these claims.
His initial request for his sentence to be modified or reduced due to the coronavirus, was denied by a federal judge last month, who accused him of using the pandemic to stay relevant.
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US District Court Judge William Pauley wrote that “ten months into his prison term, it’s time that Cohen accept the consequences of his criminal convictions for serious crimes that had far reaching institutional harms.”
He added: “That Cohen would seek to single himself out for release to home confinement appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle.”
Google’s dedicated coronavirus page shows that New York State has upwards of 222,284 confirmed cases and at least 14,636 deaths.
According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, nationally there are upwards of 671,493 people who have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 33,288.
