Michael Cohen, former President Trump's former personal attorney, walking in New York City. (Yana Paskova/Getty Images)
Cohen, former President Trump's controversial long-time lawyer and fixer, is asking the court to hear his claim that he was sent back behind bars, shackled and placed in solitary confinement on the alleged orders of Trump and Justice Department officials in July 2020 in retaliation for his writing his first tell all book, "Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized The US Department of Justice Against His Critics."
"Presidents are not kings," says the petition. "This case represents the principle that presidents and their subordinates can lock away critics of the executive without consequence. That cannot be the law in the country the Founders thought they created when they threw off the yoke of the monarch."
In 2020, U.S. Federal Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein found that the Trump administration violated Cohen's First Amendment rights when it sent him back behind bars after he was released to home confinement.
"The purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory," the judge said during a hearing on Cohen's reimprisonment.
"It's retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and with others."
A spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons denied that Cohen was retaliated against, calling the allegation "patently false."
However, Cohen's lawyer says the case goes far beyond the impact on his client, but on the legal protections for all American citizens against any constitutional violations by the executive branch.
NEW YORK V. TRUMP: MERCHAN DELAYS SENTENCING HEARING UNTIL SEPTEMBER
Former President Trump gives a speech at a rally in Racine, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
During his current campaign, former President Trump suggested he could prosecute his political opponents, establish "televised military tribunals," and has named a variety of officials and prosecutors who have brought cases against him who should be "put in jail."
"I would have every right to go after them," the former President told Fox News last month, but added he would not actually do that.
Cohen claims that Trump would, in fact, seek revenge, despite Trump's and the government's previous denials.
"Be warned...Donald will do it again and again if given the chance!"
Cohen's petition echoes that prediction.
"A former President and his subordinates conspired to use the federal prison system to silence one of the President's most vociferous and prominent public critics by revoking his approved release from prison to home confinement when the critic did not agree to waive his rights to speech," it says.
"The possibility that the federal government has the power to retaliate against critics with imprisonment, without any consequence for or check against the officials engaged in such retaliation, is a chilling prospect. This Court should not turn its eyes away from this profound breach of the contract between a government of limited power and free citizenry."
US V TRUMP: DEFENSE TO CLAIM DUE PROCESS VIOLATIONS MADE IN FBI'S MAR-A-LAGO RAID
Michael Cohen makes his way to Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Dougherty says the petition is in front of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In order for Cohen's petition to be considered by the full court, four of the nine justices must agree to hear it during the court's next term in the fall.
Habba believes that the court will likely decline to hear Cohen's plea, and if it does, will find that the Justices' recent ruling on establishing immunity for "official acts" of a president will apply to Cohen's case.
"In the unlikely event that the Supreme Court chooses to entertain Mr. Cohen's petition, and in the even more unlikely scenario that it finds any merit to his Bivens claim, his suit still fails under the doctrine of presidential immunity. If this case proceeds forward, I look forward to a decisive victory," she told Fox News.
In response to the petition, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in part that "Michael Cohen is a disgruntled disgrace and a total loser."
"Nothing Mr. Cohen says can be trusted and now that his 15 minutes of fame have expired, he is more desperate than ever."
Cohen was the star witness in the recent trial in Manhattan that convicted Trump of 34 felonies.
Cohen says, "No President should ever be permitted to weaponized the Department of Justice through a willing and complicit attorney general to have a citizen unconstitutionally remanded to prison (solitary confinement) because they refused to waive their first amendment rights. It's a case ripe for SCOTUS."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Dougherty says the Court has a duty to accept the case because of the unique and compelling Constitutional arguments it presents.
"The Supreme Court has said that the kind of lawsuit Mr. Cohen has brought can be entertained in only 'the most unusual circumstances.' What could be more unusual than a claim, supported by the findings of a federal judge, that the President and his subordinates locked away a critic for refusing to be silent? This is that case."
Eric Shawn, a New York-based anchor and senior correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC), joined the network when it launched in 1996. He is currently the co-anchor of FOX News Live. Shawn is also the host of Riddle: The Search for James R. Hoffa on FOX Nation, FNC's on-demand subscription-based streaming service, which is based upon his extensive reporting into the appearance of notorious Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
Subscribed
You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michael-cohen-goes-supreme-court-against-trump