Former Trump lawyer says he is victim of 'character assassination' and deserves early release from prison

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Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has accused prosecutors of "character assassination" for trying to block his early release from prison.

Cohen was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to charges including campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress.

He is requesting an early release which would see him serving just one year and one day of his sentence. Alternatively, he wants Judge William Pauley to move him to home confinement.

However, while he claims the help he gave prosecutors was substantial and merits special treatment, they say he was not a reliable witness.

Cohen, who is serving his sentence at the Otisville medium security jail in New York, wrote in a court filing that prosecutors were "using innuendo, conjecture, and inaccurate opinions as a basis for urging the court's denial of the pending motion", and that they were "stubbornly" refusing to acknowledge the 170 hours of testimony he had given about his crimes.

Acting US attorney Audrey Strauss has said Cohen is not a "credible witness" and accuses him of seeking to minimise his responsibility for his crimes.

Cohen insisted that he was acting out of loyalty to Mr Trump, who was referred to in the case as "individual one".

He said he had lied to a bank to get a loan as part of a deal to pay hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both claimed to have had affairs with Trump, something he denies.

In a separate court filing, Cohen's lawyer Roger Adler said his client had been unfairly singled out.

He wrote: "We perceive Defendant Michael Cohen as the 'collateral damage' of current Justice Department policies, which appear to place personal loyalty to the President over the impartial administration of justice."

Agencies contributed to this report