WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from Michael Cohen, who wanted to hold his former boss and ex-president Donald Trump liable for a jailing he said was retaliation for writing a tell-all memoir.
The justices did not detail their reasoning in the brief, routine order released just over two weeks before Election Day where Trump is running for another term.
Trump attorney Alina Habba said the Supreme Court had correctly denied Cohen’s petition, and “he must finally abandon his frivolous and desperate claims.”
Cohen has framed the suit as an accountability measure, saying in court documents the case raises “fundamental questions about the meaning and value of constitutional rights.”
Cohen had asked the high court to revive a lawsuit tossed out by lower courts. Those judges found people couldn’t generally sue over claims they were jailed for criticizing a president, and that the situation had been dealt with when Cohen was released from custody.
He filed the lawsuit after his early release from prison was quickly reversed.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to charges connected in part to the payment of hush money to porn actor Stormy Daniels to avoid damage to Trump’s 2016 presidential bid.
Cohen said Trump had directed the hush money payment, a contention that later became a key part of the New York trial where Trump was convicted this year.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
Cohen served more than a year of his three-year sentence, and was released as authorities worked to contain the coronavirus outbreak in federal prisons.
But he was returned to prison weeks later, though, after authorities claimed he failed to accept certain terms of his release. Cohen said he had asked if a condition forbidding him from speaking with the media and publishing his book could be removed.
He served 16 days in solitary confinement before he was again freed on the orders of a judge who said he’d been jailed in retaliation for his desire to publish a book critical of the president and to discuss it on social media.
Cohen sued Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr, along with various prison and probation officials.
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