Carlos Barria/Reuters
Former President Donald Trump won’t face repercussions over the way he appears to have used federal prison guards to intimidate his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, jailing and silencing him in 2020 ahead of his tell-all memoir about the billionaire’s mob-like behavior.
On Tuesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York affirmed a federal judge’s decision to dismiss the case, which dealt with a particularly authoritarian episode in the final year of Trump’s presidency. The three-judge panel wouldn’t let Cohen use a legal remedy that allows someone who’s been abused by federal agents to seek justice for the misconduct.
However, the panel tacitly acknowledged that something unfair clearly happened. The judges noted how the then-president’s archenemy was thrown back in prison on flimsy reasoning, and how the case was only resolved through some extraordinary intervention by a judge who eventually ordered that Cohen should be released.