Michael Cohen is suing Attorney General William Barr for retaliation

Michael Cohen is back behind bars, and his lawyers say it's clear that this is in retaliation for a book he is writing about the time he spent as President Trump's personal attorney and fixer.

Cohen's lawyers filed a petition on Monday night asking that he immediately be released from the federal prison in Otisville, New York. He is serving a three-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2018 to tax fraud, campaign finance violations, and lying to Congress. In May, he was released for home confinement, due to the coronavirus pandemic, but he found himself back in custody on July 9, after his attorneys said he balked at one of the conditions of his release: that he not post on social media or engage with the media, which included books.

Cohen's lawyers said he did not refuse to sign the release form, but was still returned to prison. The Monday court filing is against Attorney General William Barr, the Otisville warden, and the head of the Bureau of Prisons, and claims the Department of Justice is retaliating against Cohen because of his forthcoming book, which he recently tweeted about.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"The government's effort to exercise prior restraint over Mr. Cohen's book is only the latest in the Trump administration's efforts to censor speech that reflects negatively on Trump himself or his administration," the court filing said. Since his return to prison, Cohen has been in solitary confinement, CNN reports.