Suit: Cohen’s book will allege Trump made racist comments

NEW YORK — The book manuscript being drafted by President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen alleges that Trump has made racist comments about his predecessor Barack Obama and the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, according to court filings that contend Cohen was sent back to prison as retaliation for seeking to publish his memoir before November’s election.

The lawsuit seeks Cohen’s immediate release from federal custody. He was rearrested July 9, less than two months after he was approved to serve the remainder of his sentence on home confinement because of the coronavirus pandemic. He was detained at the federal courthouse in Manhattan during a meeting with probation officers, who had asked him to sign a gag order prohibiting him from speaking to the media or publishing a book while serving the rest of his sentence.

In the court documents filed Monday night, Cohen said his book will contain “my firsthand experiences and observations based on my decade-long employment and relationship with Mr. Trump.”

“In particular, my book will provide graphic and unflattering details about the President’s behavior behind closed doors,” Cohen wrote as part of the court filing. The memoir “describes the

President’s pointedly anti-Semitic remarks and virulently racist remarks against such Black leaders as President Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela, neither of whom he viewed as real leaders or as worthy of respect by virtue of their race,” Cohen wrote.

Neither the White House nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment.