Michael Cohen will be released from house arrest Monday, three years after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance law violations.
Former President Donald Trump’s disgraced ex-personal attorney announced that his combined federal prison and home confinement stint was coming to an end on CBS News’ podcast “America: Changed Forever.”
“I am done Sunday night,” Cohen, 55, told host Jeff Pegues on Friday. “Monday, first thing in the morning, I will be taking myself down to 500 Pearl St., where I will be bringing my release papers to … have them executed and then I am released.”
The disbarred lawyer has been under house arrest in Manhattan for 18 months after being released from Otisville over COVID-19 concerns. Cohen originally faced 45 years behind bars, but under the new arrangement he received permission to dine at French bistros and meet Kanye West for coffee in the city.
“The most important thing is that you actually keep yourself busy, that you schedule yourself,” the one-time Trump fixer reportedly said. “I’m just trying to keep myself busy until I’m free to really start my life all over again.”
Cohen admitted to illegally sending hush money to purported Trump paramours Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal and lying to lawmakers about his efforts to secure financing from the Russian government for a Trump development project in Moscow.
At his 2018 sentencing he said his “blind loyalty” to Trump had “led me to chose a path of darkness over light.”
“I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” he told a federal judge, who ordered him to pay nearly $2 million in fines, forfeitures and restitution.
“I am extremely close and I am extremely thankful that I will be able to celebrate Thanksgiving out of my home,” Cohen reportedly said. “But I have done 18 months in home confinement which is very difficult.”
