Lawyer Who Worked For Trump to Auction NFT of Memoir That He Wrote in Prison

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

Michael Cohen. 

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@Politics_PR)

Former US President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen will display and auction a non-fungible token (NFT) of the first page of his memoir titled Disloyal: A Memoir, which he wrote during his prison term.

The move was announced on 1 December by ArtGrails, which describes itself as a "standalone Blue Chip NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) platform" on its own website.

The ArtGrails NFT exhibition is supposed to begin on 1 December and will go on till the 12th.

The highest bidder will get the original manuscript of the first page, which Cohen wrote by hand while he was in New York’s Otisville Prison. The former shall also receive an unseen NFT-backed video of Cohen writing the first few pages of the memoir in his holding cell.

The auction is accessible via www.artgrails.com.

Avery Andon, the founder of ArtGrails.com said, "When Michael (Cohen) came to me after deciding to release his manuscript and federal prison badge, I knew this had to be a project facilitated by our platform. Integrating an NFT into the release of this one-of-a-kind physical item, not only validates them using blockchain technology, but it also gave us the ability to incorporate some creativity into the release", Mint reported.

In addition to Cohen's original prison badge during his time at the federal prison, ArtGrails is also releasing, for a limited period of time, the NFT versions of the badge.

ArtGrails will also host an event that will also consist of a live video appearance by Michael Cohen who will read out from his manuscript and also answer some questions from those attending.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and was fined $50,000 after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and to violating campaign finance laws, the New York Times reported.

He was released early, in May 2020, due to COVID-19 concerns and was put under house arrest.

But after being caught dining in a Manhattan restaurant, he returned to federal custody but then returned to home confinement after filing a lawsuit.

His prison sentence terminated on 22 November 2021 following which he promised to "provide information testimony documents and my full cooperation on all ongoing investigations to ensure that others are held responsible for their dirty deeds and that no one is ever believed to be above the law", CNN reported.

(With inputs from CNN, NYT, and Mint)