Michael Cohen will be released early from this three-year prison sentence due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cohen is President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer. He's in a New York federal prison for financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. Fourteen inmates and seven staff members in that prison have tested positive for COVID-19.
Cohen was set to be released in November 2021. But his lawyer told media Thursday he was approved for early release, and will quarantine for two weeks at the prison before serving the rest of his sentence in home confinement.
The approval comes just days after former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also requested early release due to fears of coronavirus.
Earlier this month, Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to increase the use of home confinement, starting at three prisons considered to be coronavirus hot spots. Neither Cohen nor Manafort are in those facilities.
Additional Reporting by Michael Balsamo of the Associated Press.
Contains footage from CNN.
