Former federal prosecutors and U.S. attorneys took to Twitter on Thursday in response to the ruling that Michael Cohen was unlawfully put back in jail because he refused to stay quiet about President Donald Trump ahead of the election.
Elie Honig, Barbara McQuade and Joyce White Vance all blasted the Trump administration for trying to stop Cohen from publishing the book using the criminal justice system and Attorney General Bill Barr.
"There’s a tendency to go numb from all the abuses but this is a big deal," Honig explained on Twitter.
"I am relieved that the court has protected Michael Cohen’s First Amendment rights, but think about what this means," McQuade said. "Trump Admin tried to imprison a citizen for writing a book critical of the President. It is not an overstatement to say that this is a hallmark of tyranny."
Vance urged Americans never to forget what Trump and Barr tried to do.
"We should never get over our outrage that Trump is using the criminal justice system to punish his enemies and Barr is permitting that abuse of justice," she tweeted.
Former special counsel for the Department of Defense, Ryan Goodman agreed, paraphrasing the judge's decision, "I make the finding that the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen to jail was retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish his book."
"Sit back and think about that. Frightening this happened," he said.