Cohen Seeks Supreme Court Intervention in Lawsuit Against Trump ‘No President Should Ever Weaponize the DOJ’
(REUTERS/Mike Segar)
Donald Trump’s former “fixer,” Michael Cohen, is appealing to the Supreme Court to revive his First Amendment lawsuit against his former boss after a federal appeals court dismissed his case seeking compensation for retributive jailing.
In a statement to news outlets on Wednesday, Cohen said, “No president should ever be permitted to weaponize the Department of Justice through a willing and complicit attorney general, to have a citizen unconstitutionally remanded to prison, in my case, solitary confinement, because that person refuses to waive that First Amendment constitutional right.”
He described Trump and his administration as “un-American” and expressed confidence that his case is “ripe” for the Supreme Court to hear. Cohen’s filing requests that the nation’s highest court, which includes three justices appointed by Trump, reconsider an appeals court’s decision that denied his attempt to hold former President Trump, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and other Justice Department officials accountable for his re-imprisonment after he refused to refrain from writing a book critical of Trump.
“This is a case of first impression,” Cohen reiterated. “No president should ever be permitted to weaponize the Department of Justice through a willing and complicit attorney general to have a citizen unconstitutionally remanded to prison (solitary confinement) because they refused to waive their First Amendment right. It’s a case ripe for the SCOTUS.”
Cohen’s appeal follows a Supreme Court ruling that presidents have “absolute” immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts” performed while in office. He is asking the justices to apply the Bivens precedent, though such claims are “virtually impossible” to obtain due to recent Supreme Court decisions, according to NBC News.
Cohen stated, according to The Independent, that he doesn’t “believe that anyone could justify this blatant, unconstitutional act” as being protected under the recent immunity ruling. This filing comes after Cohen warned Americans on Tuesday about the potential for revenge in a second Trump term, emphasizing that such threats should not be taken lightly.
“When Donald Trump turns around and says that he’s going to use SEAL Team Six as his own private force to incarcerate his political opponents, and the comment that people make is, ‘You know Donald, he just talks stupid s—. He’s not going to do anything,’ the point of the unconstitutional remand of me is don’t discount what he’s telling you,” Cohen said. “He’s already foreshadowing what he intends to do. And when you say, ‘That’s not possible. He won’t do it. He can’t do it.’ He’s already done it to me. It was a practice run.”
