(Bloomberg) -- The US Supreme Court refused to open Donald Trump to a lawsuit by his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, who says he was returned to prison because he wouldn’t promise not to publicly criticize his onetime boss.
The justices without comment Monday turned away an appeal by Cohen in a case that grew out of his 2018 guilty plea to crimes tied to his work for Trump.
Cohen says he was subject to retaliation when he and his lawyer met with probation officers in July 2020. At the time, Cohen was on furlough because of the pandemic and was seeking to finish his sentence under home confinement.
Cohen says he was asked to sign an agreement with a clause prohibiting him from engaging with the press or using social media — a provision that would have prevented him from publicizing his forthcoming book about then-President Trump.
When Cohen asked to have the clause removed, the officers allegedly took him into custody. Cohen says he was then transfered to prison and put in solitary confinement for 16 days.
Cohen sought to win damages from Trump and other officials by pressing a so-called Bivens suit, which alleges a federal officer violated a constitutional right. A New York-based US appeals court tossed out the case, pointing to Supreme Court rulings that in recent years have limited the circumstances in which Bivens suits can go forward.
The Biden administration joined Trump in urging the Supreme Court to reject the appeal without a hearing.
Bivens suits took their name from a 1971 Supreme Court ruling that let a man sue federal drug-enforcement agents for arresting and searching him even though no federal law explicitly authorized the suit.
The case is Cohen v. Trump, 24-41.
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