Last year when rumours of a Cohen book swirled, the president lashed out on Twitter, saying: “Congress must demand the transcript of Michael Cohen’s new book, given to publishers a short time ago. Your heads will spin when you see the lies, misrepresentations and contradictions against his Thursday testimony. Like a different person! He is totally discredited!”

Trump’s ex-lawyer has not been shiftless while hiding his light under a gray-bar bushel.

Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, has spent his time behind bars writing a potentially explosive tell-all book about life with the president, reports say. Three people familiar with the project told The Daily Beast that Cohen – who is being released early from prison over coronavirus fears – has penned the book. He’s been incarcerated since last May at a minimum security facility in New York State after being convicted of financial crimes which included hush-money payments to a Playboy playmate and porn star who alleged affairs with Trump. Actor Tom Arnold has stayed in contact with Cohen during his time inside, and told the publication: “It’s like Jaws – you don’t see Jaws very much, but you hear the music, and for Trump he knows Michael is coming and Trump better hear the Jaws music.” www.independent.co.uk/...

Cohen's pending release had already raised several important questions about the criminal justice system and how it is working. But then last week Politico reported that, in fact, many of the prisoners who had been told they could go home were being sent back to their cells. The institutional flip-flopping is unfair to the inmates and their families, and it undermines the public's confidence in our government's ability to make difficult decisions in times of crisis. [...] Shifting and changing inmate release policies have caused widespread confusion. The lack of a clear, common-sense Justice Department/Bureau of Prisons policy prompted one federal judge to sternly rebuke the government, saying the procedures were "illogical" and "kafkaesque." In another federal case, a judge ordered prosecutors to explain their release policy after an inmate was told one day that he would be released, only to be told the next day that the Bureau of Prisons had reversed course. Simply put, the Bureau of Prisons flip-flops are yet another example of Barr's lack of leadership and a sign of a Justice Department in free fall. When I was a federal prosecutor, everything I did in court reflected the position of the U.S. government. That is an awesome, weighty responsibility. But Barr has made that job beyond difficult for the country's approximately 2,300 federal prosecutors. Recall the Roger Stone case: The career prosecutors in that case filed a sentencing recommendation. Thereafter, Trump tweeted that the sentencing recommendation was "horrible and very unfair" and said he would not allow "this miscarriage of justice!" The next day, Barr made prosecutors dramatically lighten their sentencing recommendation. www.nbcnews.com/...