Trump's ex-lawyer Michael Cohen to start prison sentence after losing final bid to avoid jail

‘He’s going to what I like to refer to as Jewish heaven,’ says prison consultant

Federal prosecutors have rejected a last-ditch request from Michael Cohen’s legal team to discuss ways to reduce his three-year prison sentence in exchange for information.

It means Donald Trump’s former attorney will report to prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty to campaign-finance violations, tax evasion, bank fraud and lying to Congress.

Cohen will be housed in “dorm-like” accommodation at the minimum-security wing of the Federal Correctional Institute in Otisville, about 70 miles northwest of New York City.

Prison consultants said it had become a destination for Jewish inmates due to its proximity to New York City’s Jewish and upstate New York’s Orthodox Jewish enclaves.

“He’s going to what I like to refer to as Jewish heaven,” said Larry Levine, founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, who served a 10-year sentence.

The prison’s menu includes matzo ball soup, gefilte fish and rugelach pastry, features a full-time rabbi and gives inmates opportunities for occasional home visits.

Jack Donson, a former manager at the prison who now runs a prison consulting firm, said the camp was “a great place for white-collar Jewish guys”.

Michael Frantz, a former inmate who founded Jail Time Consulting, said: “The availability for kosher food is much greater.”

Entrance to the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York state (Reuters) (REUTERS)

The camp is not fenced in and inmates’ movements throughout the day are not as tightly controlled as in more secure facilities. Inmates are given jobs, which Mr Levine described as “busy work” like cleaning or emptying garbage.

But, in practice, work hours at Otisville are short, sometimes one or two hours a day, said Justin Paperny, a former inmate whose consulting firm White Collar Advice has clients in the camp.

For much of the day, the former Trump associate “can pretty much do what he wants,” Mr Frantz said.

Cohen, who once claimed he would “take a bullet” for Mr Trump, was sentenced in December for orchestrating payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal shortly before the 2016 US presidential election.

He has accused his former boss of directing the payments, but the president, who has denied the affairs, said he never directed Cohen to do anything illegal.

Michael Cohen leaves his apartment on 3 May ahead of reporting to jail on Monday (AP)

Since mid-March, prosecutors in New York have rebuffed Cohen’s repeated offers to provide more information about alleged wrongdoing by Trump and other people in his orbit. He hoped federal prosecutors would ask a judge to shorten his sentence.

Cohen met with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators several times, culminating with a session only days before the former FBI director turned his report over to the Justice Department.

On his last weekend of freedom before heading to jail, Cohen took his son to a barbershop in Manhattan, where they both got haircuts, before he visited Barneys luxury retail store.. He told reporters he plans to hold a news conference on Monday before entering prison.

Additional reporting by AP