Donald Trump just tipped off how afraid he is of Michael Cohen’s release from prison
Due to the worsening coronavirus outbreaks in federal prison, Michael Cohen is being released so he can serve the remainder of his sentence under house arrest. We’re fine with this. Cohen served nearly half his term, he’s highly unlikely to return to a life of crime, and he did try to do the right thing at the very end, so he doesn’t deserve to be exposed to a deadly virus.
Donald Trump, however, is apparently not fine with Michael Cohen getting out. In fact he’s throwing a fit about it behind the scenes, according to a new Daily Beast expose. Trump is offering various faux-high minded reasons for not wanting Cohen to be released, but we don’t think it’s difficult to parse Trump’s real reason for being so bothered by this.
Michael Cohen has a tell-all book coming out about the crimes he committed with Donald Trump, and it’s coming out before the election. This was going to happen whether Cohen was still behind bars or not; you’re allowed to write a book while in prison and have your representatives put it up for sale.
But Donald Trump is a more simplistic thinker than that, so he surely equates Michael Cohen’s release with the book somehow having more impact. It’s still not clear how many or few privileges Cohen will have when it comes to things like TV interviews and Twitter while he’s under house arrest, but there’s no limit to what he can put in the book. And because Cohen’s book will have nothing to do with national security, Trump can’t play the games that he played with John Bolton’s failed book. Trump is clearly very worried about what Cohen has to say about their life of crime together – and the fact that he’ll get to say it before the election.
