Lawsuit says Trump made racist remarks

Attorney General

William Barr and the Justice Department are doing everything they can to prevent Michael Cohen from publishing a book that claims President Donald Trump made “virulently racist remarks” about Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela, according to a new lawsuit.

Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, claims in the suit filed late Monday that Barr and the Bureau of Prisons are violating his First Amendment rights. The lawsuit provides new details on the haphazard effort to take Cohen back into custody on charges of campaign finance violations, bank fraud, lying to Congress and other crimes.

Prison officials had released Cohen to furlough – a more permissive form of home confinement – in May due to the risk of catching coronavirus in prison. But once

Cohen began tweeting “#Willspeaksoon” and teasing his book, Trump and the Department of

Justice did everything they could to lock him back up, the suit says.

“U.S. Probation Officers, working on behalf of the BOP, presented Mr. Cohen with an unconstitutional demand: As a condition of his release – a release BOP already had determined was necessary to protect

Mr. Cohen’s health – he had to agree to a complete bar on speaking to or through any media of any sort, including via a book,” the suit states.

The book “describes

Mr. Cohen’s first-hand experiences with Mr. Trump, and it provides graphic details about the President’s behavior behind closed doors,” the suit reads. “The narrative describes pointedly certain anti-semitic remarks against prominent Jewish people and virulently racist remarks against such Black leaders as President Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela.”

The decision to take Cohen, 53, back into custody on July 9 appeared to have been made at the last minute.