Adding yet another legal worry to the barrage of suits now facing ex-President Trump, his long-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen has sued him, former Attorney Bill Barr, and several prison officials for retaliation and violation of his First Amendment rights. Cohen claims that these government officials retaliated against him when they rescinded his home confinement and sent him back to jail after learning he was writing a tell-all book.

Cohen, 55, had pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and violating several campaign laws at the direction of the ex-President. He was sentenced to three years at the Federal Correction Institution in Otisville, New York, but was given home confinement early in the COVID-19 crisis because of his medical history of severe hypertension.

Just two months later, the government ordered him to return to jail. Cohen claimed this order was retaliation for his book. He is now seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for seven separate causes of action that caused “injuries suffered from the unconstitutional and unlawful conduct of defendants.

These claims for retaliation fall under New York Common Law and the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA); False Arrest, False Imprisonment, Abuse of Authority and Process and Negligent Infliction of Emotional and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress under the same laws, Negligently (sic) Failure to Protect under the FTCA; Negligent Hiring, Retention and Supervision under the FTCA; and Violation of Defendant’s Rights Against Retaliation for Exercising His Right to Free Speech, Right Against Unlawful Seizure of His Person and to Be Free from Cruel and Unusual Punishment under the First, Fourth, and Eighth Amendments.

In his civil rights lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court on December 16, Cohen’s complaint also referenced Trump’s attempt to prevent the publication of similar books by John Bolton and Trump’s niece Mary. He is also demanding a jury trial.

Thus far, Cohen has the law on his side. His retaliation claims were already sanctioned last July when U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted Cohen’s emergency motion to allow him to serve the remainder of his three-year term in the home confinement that had been granted during the COVID-19 crisis because of his severe hypertension. This furlough program released many white-collar criminals who were at heightened risk of COVID-19 due to their age or medical history.

During the hearing on Cohen’s motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, Hellerstein explained, “How can I take any other inference other than it’s retaliatory?” He called the government’s actions “unprecedented in his 21-year career,” while noting that Cohen was unfairly sent back to prison for writing a book. The government’s actions against Cohen were “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,” the Judge said.

He summarized the government’s tenuous home confinement conditions, which he said really told Cohen: “You toe the line about giving up your First Amendment rights or we’ll send you to jail.” Just after his release from jail, Cohen was asked to sign a gag order that would have forced him to refrain from speaking or writing about anything that happened during his years as Trump’s attorney. Even the Bureau of Prisons conceded that “Cohen was sent back to prison for his attorneys attempting to negotiate that rule,” according to an article in Courthouse News.

During his home confinement, Cohen wrote his book Disloyal: A Memoir –The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. From home, he used social media to promote it, using the hashtag #WillSpeakSoon. A gag order followed, and when Cohen asked for clarification from the Federal Location Monitoring Program, three U.S. Marshals came to his home with an order to remand him to prison because he “had failed to agree to the terms of his location monitoring.” He was then placed in solitary confinement for 23.5 days in a twelve by eight-foot-cell until Hellerstein granted his preliminary injunction. Cohen’s complaint said his confinement led to a dangerous increase in his blood pressure, exacerbated by his cell’s 100-degree temperature and lack of air conditioning.

In addition to the legal actions he conducted while Trump’s lawyer for over ten years, according to his complaint, his book includes reports of Trump’s anti-Semitic remarks against several Jewish people, and racist comments about former President Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela and others.

While the case itself is a bit ironic, so is Cohen’s new status as a First Amendment champion. It was Cohen, of course, who paid Stormy Daniels hush money to silence her about her affair with Trump. Cohen began cooperating with the government after the FBI began investigating his actions as Trump’s lawyer and fixer.

Cohen finished his three-year sentence last month. Now, he has filed his suit, which his attorney Andrew Laufer explained to Courthouse News, “This is just part and parcel to what the Trump administration represented. They stomped on people’s rights, they retaliated against those who fell out of favor, and they just ignored the Constitution and the law. And we intend on having them answer for that.”