#Insiders reveal what house arrest is like for Paul Manafort, Michael Avenatti, Mary Boone

Enlarge Image

Paul Manafort and Michael Avenatti.
AFP/Getty Images

Pandemic lockdown can feel like a prison, but it’s meant freedom for some high-profile criminals.

With the coronavirus crisis sweeping the country’s prison system — at a rate 5.5 times higher than that of the rest of the US population, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University — these jailbirds have gone from life behind bars to house arrest. Still, they are discovering their new normal is anything but.

Michael Cohen learned his lesson this week, when he was sent back to prison less than two months after his lucky release.

The former lawyer to Donald Trump was released to home confinement on May 21 from Otisville federal prison upstate, where he was serving three years after pleading guilty to tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations in 2018.

Upon Cohen’s release, his lawyer, Jeffrey K. Levine, said of his home lock-up: “It’s still his prison until his sentence is over.”

But after The Post published photos of Cohen dining out last week at Le Bilboquet, the 53-year-old was taken back into custody.

“I think he’s probably still in disbelief he’s back in Otisville,” Levine told The Post. “The look in his eyes as he was being taken away [haunts me].”

A friend said home re-entry wasn’t easy for Cohen. “It was disorienting going from solitary confinement [because of COVID-19 restrictions] to [his old life],” the friend told The Post. “This stuff is traumatic. You have this elation that you’re home, but you have to deal with the aftermath of your jail sentence.”

Pastor Darrell Scott, a onetime close friend of Cohen, was less sympathetic. “It was dumb. I know thugs in the hood who know to keep their heads down,” Scott told The Post. “He’s his own worst enemy sometimes. You won’t see Paul Manafort at a restaurant.”

Here’s how Manafort and others are handling house arrest.

Paul Manafort

CRIME:


Trump’s campaign chairman was found guilty on eight counts in his tax and bank fraud trial, and pleaded guilty to two felonies.

SENTENCED TO:


Seven-and-a-half years at FCI Loretto, a facility in Pennsylvania.

TIME SERVED:


Manafort moved to home confinement on May 13, 23 months into his sentence, after having been hospitalized for a cardiac event last year and the flu in February.

“Being surrounded by family is a good thing for Paul,” his attorney Todd Blanche told The Post.

While a source told The Post that some associates want nothing to do with Manafort, at least one looks forward to seeing him. Roger Stone was to report to prison next week after being convicted of crimes related to the Mueller investigation, but Trump commuted his sentence Friday.

“When you’re indicted, the government gives a list of people with whom you can have no contact,” Stone said, adding he missed his pal. Manafort was on his list, but now that may be moot.

---

Mary Boone

CRIME:


In September 2018, the art dealer pleaded guilty to false income tax returns — reporting business losses when her eponymous gallery made a profit of some $3.7 million.

SENTENCED TO:


Thirty months at the federal correctional institution in Danbury, Conn.

TIME SERVED:

She was released in June, about 13 months in, and is now at home on the East Side of Manhattan. “I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to go home early,” the 68-year-old, who represented artists including Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat, told The Post. “[Prison] teaches you a lot of humility.”

Since release, she hasn’t spoken to anyone from her high-flying old life — focusing on her relationship with her son, Max, who visits often. “He’s here all the time.”

She said that, after decades of a busy career, being at home is an unexpected blessing. “With the gallery, it [took up] so much time . . . I love being in my home. I’m on a new journey.”

---

Michael Avenatti

CRIME:


In February, the lawyer. who represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her suits against President Trump, was found guilty of trying to extort $23.5 million from Nike. He is also charged with embezzlement in California.

SENTENCED TO:


Still awaiting sentencing, he faces 40-plus years in prison and had been detained at Tribeca’s Metropolitan Correctional Center.

TIME SERVED:


Avenatti was temporarily released in April and is set to return Sept. 24. He is now living at the “small one-bedroom” apartment of a friend in Venice Beach, Calif., according to lawyer Mariel Colon. Avenatti sleeps on a couch in the living room and has an ankle monitor strapped to him at all times.

“Anything is better than where he was,” Colon said. “He’s scared to go back because of the risk of the virus.”