By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid by Michael Cohen to revive a lawsuit accusing his former boss Donald Trump and various former federal officials of returning him to prison in 2020 in retaliation for penning a book critical of Trump, who was president at the time.
Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, had appealed a lower court’s dismissal of his suit, which sought monetary damages from Trump, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, federal prison officials and the federal government. Cohen’s suit accused them of violating his rights under the U.S. Constitution by restricting his free speech and subjecting him to an illegal seizure and cruel and unusual punishment.
Cohen’s lawyer Jon‑Michael Dougherty said the Supreme Court’s decision “signals a dangerous moment in American democracy.”
“In denying Michael Cohen’s petition, the Supreme Court has stated that the courts will not provide any deterrent for an executive intent on incarcerating its critics in retaliation for their speech,” Dougherty said.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba took a different view.
“Michael Cohen has exhausted every avenue of his pathetic attempt to drag my client into court time and time again. As expected, the Supreme Court has correctly denied Michael Cohen’s petition and he must finally abandon his frivolous and desperate claims,” Habba said.
Trump is the Republican presidential candidate facing U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to multiple federal felonies, including campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. He was released in May 2020 amid the COVID pandemic, but was abruptly put back in prison two months later after questioning an agreement that barred his book’s publication, communicating with the media and social media.
A judge ordered Cohen’s release 16 days later, finding he had been targeted with retaliation.
Cohen’s tell-all book, “Disloyal: A Memoir,” topped the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list in September 2020.
Cohen filed his civil lawsuit in 2021 in federal court in New York. He said that over a 16-day period he suffered severe headaches, shortness of breath and anxiety while spending 23-1/2 hours a day in a small cell at the Otisville, New York, federal prison, where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).
‘AN EGREGIOUS VIOLATION’
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman, a Trump appointee, dismissed Cohen’s suit. But the judge appeared reluctant in finding that Supreme Court precedents “squarely and unequivocally” required dismissing many claims, saying his decision did “profound violence” to Cohen’s constitutional rights.
“Cohen’s complaint alleges an egregious violation of constitutional rights by the executive branch – nothing short of the use of executive power to lock up the president’s political enemies for speaking critically of him,” Liman wrote.
In rejecting Cohen’s claims, Liman cited a 1971 Supreme Court ruling in a case called Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents. Although that ruling allows federal officials to be sued in their individual capacity for violating a plaintiff’s constitutional rights, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in recent years has limited its scope.
On appeal, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of Cohen’s lawsuit, prompting his appeal to the Supreme Court.
Lawyers for President Joe Biden’s administration had urged the justices to deny Cohen’s appeal.
Cohen was a central witness in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against Trump involving a $130,000 hush money payment made by Cohen to silence porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 U.S. election about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump a decade earlier. Trump denied any such encounter.
Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents.
While Cohen has sued Trump, the former president also has returned the favor. For instance, Trump sued Cohen in April 2023 seeking at least $500 million, accusing him of failing to keep confidential attorney-client communications private and profiting by “spreading falsehoods” about Trump in books and podcasts. Trump filed to dismiss his own suit six months later.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices appointed by Trump during his presidency from 2017 to 2021.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; editing by Will Dunham)