July 21, 2020 • No Comments • National News

JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty ImagesBy AARON KATERSKY and IVAN PEREIRA, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Michael Cohen alleges he was sent back to federal prison and put in solitary confinement as retaliation over a tell-all book on the president he aims to publish, according to a lawsuit filed by the disgraced attorney.

Cohen filed the suit in New York Federal Court Monday against U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York, where Cohen is currently confined, contending his detainment is in “retaliation for his protected speech.”

Cohen, who is serving a three-year sentence for violating campaign finance laws and lying to Congress, was sent back to the facility on July 9 after spending two months on furlough in home confinement.

He alleges in the suit that U.S. Probation Officers offered him “an unconstitutional demand” where he was prohibited from speaking to the media in any form. That stipulation included a book that Cohen has been writing over the last year where he claims he will reveal new details about the president during his decade as Trump’s attorney, according to the suit.

“The First Amendment forbids respondents from imprisoning Mr. Cohen in retaliation for drafting a book about the President and for seeking to publish that book soon,” the suit said.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told ABC News in a statement that it does not comment on pending litigation. Representatives for Barr’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Department of Justice furloughed Cohen, 53, from prison and released him to his Manhattan home in May over coronavirus concerns in federal detention facilities. The suit said he had been working on his manuscript shortly after he was sent to the Otisville facility in 2019 and complied with prison rules.

“Mr. Cohen did most of his writing in plain sight in the law library. Indeed, staff at Otisville, including Camp Administrator Robert Schreffler and Correctional Counselor James DeLeo, explicitly informed Mr. Cohen that they were aware he was writing a book,” the suit said.

The suit said the book will detail Trump’s behaviors behind closed doors such as making “pointedly certain anti-Semitic remarks against prominent Jewish people and virulently racist remarks against such Black leaders as President Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela.”

Cohen continued to work on the manuscript after he was furloughed and teased the book on his Twitter account on July 2, according to the suit.

During a meeting on July 9 with probation officers to formalize terms of homeconfinemen on July 9, Cohen and his attorney asked for clarification on the home confinement demands that restricted his public comments. Probation officers said his request would be sent “up the chain of command” for a decision, according to the suit. Cohen and his attorney stayed in a waiting room for about an hour-and-a-half and never received clarification or an agreement to sign before agents took him back into custody, the suit alleges.

During a court hearing on July 9, Cohen and his attorney asked for clarification on the home confinement demands and probation officers said his request would be sent “up the chain of command” for a decision, according to the suit. Cohen and his attorney stayed in a waiting room for about an hour-and-a-half before agents took him back into custody, the suit alleges.

He is currently living in a 12-by-8-foot cell in the prison by himself, according to the suit.

The suit contends that Cohen never refused to sign the agreement over his confinement rules and the Bureau of Prison’s statements about his conduct and responses to the court orders are false.

Two other books about the president have drawn legal challenges, including “The Room Where it Happened” by former national security adviser John Bolton and “Too Much and Never Enough” by Mary Trump, the president’s niece. Both have been published.

“The government’s effort to exercise prior restraint over Mr. Cohen’s book is only the latest in the Trump Administration’s efforts to censor speech that reflects negatively on Trump himself or his Administration,” Cohen’s lawsuit said.

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July 21, 2020 • No Comments • National News

Michael Ciaglo/Getty ImagesBy ELLA TORRES, ABC News

(AURORA, Colo.) — City council members in Aurora, Colorado, unanimously passed a resolution Monday evening allowing for an “independent, unbiased” investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old unarmed Black man who died after he was apprehended by Aurora, Colorado, police in August 2019.

The resolution stated that a neutral-third investigation is needed “to discern the facts about what transpired that night of August 24, 2019.”

City council noted that a previous outside investigator hired “did not meet the standard of neutrality that the City and community seeks,” according to a copy of the resolution.

It was not immediately clear when such an investigation would begin.

McClain was walking after buying iced tea at a corner store on Aug. 24, 2019, when he was stopped by police, McClain’s family attorney, Mari Newman, previously told ABC news.

Police received a call about him being “sketchy” because he was wearing a ski mask, though the caller noted that no weapons were involved and no one was in danger, according to a transcript of the call.

When police stopped McClain, a struggle ensued and officers placed him in a carotid control hold — which involves an officer placing his arm around a person’s neck, restricting the flow of blood to the brain from the carotid arteries.

Paramedics with the Aurora Fire Department also gave McClain ketamine, as per their department protocol used for “rapid tranquilization in order to minimize time struggling,” according to officials.

McClain, who had been throwing up, was put in an ambulance where he suffered cardiac arrest, according to police.

Though police said McClain regained consciousness and was being treated at a local hospital, he died several days later.

The resolution from Aurora City Council members called for a three-member team of people who have expertise in a multitude of areas, including law enforcement and police safety accountability, civil rights, EMT procedures and use of force.

The team should begin “its work immediately and shall complete its investigation as expeditiously as possible,” the resolution stated, though no timeline was given.

The team will be led by Jonathan Smith of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Washington D.C., a nonprofit law firm that addresses racial and economic justice in the criminal justice system, as well as other sectors.

Smith was not available to comment, however a spokesman with the law firm confirmed he was chosen by the city to be part of the investigation.

Smith, who has served as executive director for the law firm since July 2016, previously held positions as the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia and as the chief of the special litigations section at the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The other members of the team have not yet been publicly named.

McClain’s death received renewed attention in June, as protests against police brutality erupted across the U.S. and world in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, another unarmed Black man who was killed by Minneapolis police.

Back in June, Aurora city leaders said that a Connecticut attorney was leading a third-party investigation into McClain’s death, however, city council members noted that the attorney was a former police officer who worked closely with police departments, according to ABC Denver affiliate KMGH.

The city council members deemed the attorney ill fit to conduct an independent investigation.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis also announced back in June that he was appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the case and file charges if “the facts support prosecution,” saying “at a bare minimum [the family] deserve a thorough review of the case.” Phil Weiser, the state’s attorney general, will fill the role, the governor said.

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