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U.S. District Judge John Koeltl said the petition was premature
because prosecutors were not yet required, under a 2018 law
allowing early release for some prisoners, to credit Cohen for
hundreds of hours of work and courses he completed while
imprisoned at a federal facility in New York state.
The Manhattan judge also said Cohen had failed to exhaust his
administrative remedies, and faced no irreparable harm because
there was "no basis to conclude that Mr. Cohen's service of his
sentence violates his constitutional rights."Cohen, 54, who
represented himself, is serving a three-year sentence for
campaign finance violations, tax evasion and other crimes to
which he pleaded guilty in December 2018.
He spent a little over one year in the Otisville, New York,
prison before being allowed to serve his term in his Manhattan
apartment, as the COVID-19 pandemic began tearing through the
nation's prisons.
Cohen had sought to end home confinement on May 29.
His projected release date is now Nov. 22, reflecting more than
five months of credits for good behavior.
In a text message, Cohen said that despite the "adverse
decision" on his petition, "all attention" should be directed to
the murder conviction on Tuesday of former Minneapolis police
officer Derek Chauvin and the "justice for George Floyd."
Last July, Cohen was returned to prison for two weeks amid a
dispute with federal officials over his plan for a tell-all book
critical of his former boss.
The book, "Disloyal: A Memoir," was published in September.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Jonathan Stempel in New York;
Editing by Peter Cooney)
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