Michael Cohen asks SCOTUS to revive Trump lawsuit

Michael Cohen asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive his lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump and some Trump administration officials of retaliating against him when he sought release from federal prison.

Cohen, Trump's former attorney, served time after a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced him in 2018 to three years in prison for various crimes, including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. He was released to home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic but sent back to prison after he balked at a condition of his release that required him to waive his ability to criticize Trump, who was president at the time. Cohen had been writing a book critical of Trump.

A judge eventually allowed Cohen to serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. However, a judge tossed out his lawsuit against the former president, and in January, a panel of appellate judges declined to revive it.

"Thus, as it stands, this case represents the principle that presidents and their subordinates can lock away critics of the executive without consequence. That cannot be the law in the country the Founders created when they threw off the yoke of the monarch,” Cohen's petition to the Supreme Court said.