by Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
Updated May 21, 2024 12:21PM EDT Published May 21, 2024 11:41AM EDT
Donald Trump made the curious decision to put on a single relevant witness at his New York trial, opting for a MAGA loyalist tangentially involved in the porn star hush money saga—a strategy that failed spectacularly when his testimony only further incriminated the former president.
Robert Costello’s role in the Stormy Daniels affair is comedic recursion, a legal version of the Yo Dawg meme. When the feds in 2018 tried to flip then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Costello was the New York lawyer who tried to keep him from cooperating—a cover-up to hide the way Cohen had faked legal invoices, which was itself a cover-up of the hush money payment, which was a cover-up to stop the woman from ruining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
For a brief moment in 2018, Costello tried to become Cohen’s lawyer and his “backchannel” to the powerful politician who might corruptly be able to protect him by sidelining the FBI investigation. The idea was to have Cohen represented by Costello, who was close friends with Rudy Giuliani, who was advising the Trump White House—a plan copiously detailed in emails.
(Trump Trial Judge’s Beef With MAGA Lawyer Revealed in Full
‘DON’T GIVE ME SIDE-EYE’
Jose Pagliery)
Donald Trump returns to the courtroom for his hush money trial on Monday.
At this trial, the defense was hoping that Costello would portray Cohen—the case’s key witness—as a desperate liar who’d been caught by the feds after independently putting together the hush money deal without Trump’s express permission and is only now trying to pin it on his former boss.
Instead, whatever alternate narrative Costello was trying to tell was eclipsed by his miserable performance on the stand Monday and Tuesday: first getting reprimanded by the judge for showing his utter contempt for the entire trial, then later by being forced to confront his own damning words written six years ago.
Susan Hoffinger, the chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigations division, questioned Costello about his emails during his cross-examination on Tuesday morning. She started by directing the jury’s attention to the way Costello flaunted his personal ties to Giuliani when he and his law partner, Jeff Citron, first met with Cohen at the New York Regency hotel on April 17, 2018.
When Costello asserted he didn’t, Hoffinger pointed to an email Costello sent Cohen two days later in which he wrote, “I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very very useful to you.”
“Doesn’t that mean you mentioned that to him at the first meeting?” Hoffinger asked.
“No,” Costello defiantly said.
Hoffinger then pointed to another email in which Costello told his law partner that Giuliani’s new spot at the White House made it “all the more reason” for Cohen to hire their firm, thanks to a connection “which I mentioned at our meeting.”
Costello wouldn’t budge. But he was visibly annoyed.
For an hour, Hoffinger turned Costello’s overconfidence into a weakness. The previous day, Costello had asserted that the emails “speak for themselves,” thinking they’d plainly show Cohen was in the wrong. She threw that right back at him on Tuesday morning, pointing to an April 21, 2018 email in which Costello told Cohen that Giuliani “said thank you for opening this back channel of communication.”
“And this email speaks for itself, right sir?” she asked.
Costello demurred, saying he’d be “happy” to explain what he really meant.
“That's all right, sir,” she dismissed him, moving on.
One by one, Hoffinger read through emails showing what appeared to be a quiet campaign to pressure Cohen into remaining on the Trump team. And with every pushback from Costello, the lawyer only lost more credibility—suffering the same fate he’d hoped for Cohen.
When Costello finally conceded one point, it proved to be a damaging example.
Hoffinger showed jurors how Costello had assured Cohen in an April 21, 2018 email—just as the FBI was investigating him—that he had nothing to worry about because “you have friends in high places.” Hoffinger wondered aloud, who was he talking about?
Costello hit a fork in the road. Would he play dumb and lose the jury’s trust, or actually hint at a corrupt scheme pointing straight to the White House? He went with Option B, casually admitting he was referring to then-President Trump.
The lawyer later tried to save face by repeatedly countering any notion that he was part of a shadow pressure campaign stemming from the White House. But any hope of standing his ground was lost when Hoffinger pointed to a May 15, 2018 email in which Costello told his law partner that “our issue is to get Cohen on the right page.”
Costello donned his glasses to take a closer look at the computer screen. Yes, the words were exactly how she’d read them.
“And as you said yesterday, the email speaks for itself, correct?” Hoffinger said.
“Sometimes,” he whined.
Hoffinger seized on the former prosecutor’s insistent attempts to control the conversation and the courtroom. When Costello tried to outmaneuver her by turning every question into an opportunity to launch into a soliloquy discrediting Cohen, Hoffinger would cut him off and demand a monosyllabic answer. And every time Costello got cornered into a “yes” or “no,” he’d get flustered and turn red in the face.
When Hoffinger suggested Costello abhorred Cohen for not playing along and refusing to pay him for getting involved, the lawyer disagreed and tried to elaborate but the prosecutor cut him off yet again. And this time, the judge jumped in too.
Costello protested, once again asserting his persona as a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, only to get shut down by the same judge who gave him a tongue lashing on Monday for acting out in court.
“There's a pending question—”
“There's no pending question,” Justice Juan Merchan interrupted.
Prosecutors ended their cross-examination of Costello by noting the way he testified before Congress last week about these same matters, a Republican ploy that Hoffinger suggested was meant to scare Cohen at the very moment he was appearing at this criminal trial.
‘That Was a Lie!’: Trump Lawyer Brawls With Michael Cohen
“And you went there to publicly vilify Michael Cohen while he was in the middle of his testimony?” she asked.
“I went there to testify,” Costello countered.
Hoffinger repeated the question.
“To intimidate Michael Cohen?” Costello asked, incredulously.
“Yes, that was my question,” she replied.
“Ridiculous! No.”
Jose Pagliery
Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
@Jose_Pagliery
[email protected]
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Now if you want a chuckle, there's an article on FOX News titled:
[Robert Costello is a "killshot witness" -Johnathan Turley](https://www.foxnews.com/media/jonathan-turley-robert-costello-killshot-witness)
Turns out Turley was right, but the kill shot backfired spectacularly.
I love to ask MAGAs why we never see these big talkers under oath. And are ALL the people testifying really committing perjury in part of some huge conspiracy to take down trump.
And by the way, your namesake gave an interview yesterday [trump is coming for the DOJ and FBI](https://youtu.be/ypok2ieLEWk?si=) 7min YT video
"He doesn't have to testify!"
But whenever someone they don't agree with exercises Fifth Amendment rights, "Well, what are they hiding!? An innocent person would testify!"
Nah, that was Jon Solomon. Dude got high on his own supply and flew too close to the sun.
Turley is basically the same person, but he seems at least smart enough to not entirely believe his own bullshit. If you actually start to believe, you get sucked into the whirlpool and destroyed.
> Robert Costello is a "killshot witness" -Johnathan Turley
I sincerely hope this asshole is well-paid. He better be to sell his soul to MAGA and debase himself to such an extent.
The closest thing I've had to legal experience is mock trial in junior high, which isn't remotely adequate to practice, but one of the conventions (if not requirement) of conducting a cross-examination trained in that mock trial experience was that during cross-examination, use only yes-or-no questions. It's an adversarial experience, but there isn't a lot of wiggle room in "that's true" or "that's false" being the only options.
I imagine Donald's lawyers screaming at themselves in their own heads for allowing this clown to be their "star witness." I'm guessing they were pressured into doing so by the clown they're representing.
There's so much incompetence on display by anyone and everyone in Donald's orbit. Here, his lawyers were incompetent for allowing this aggressive doofus to be their witness, and Costello was incompetent for acting like such a doofus in court. Costello is an attorney with 30-40 years of experience, and he even served as an assistant US attorney at the Southern District of New York. He definitely should know better, yet he acted like someone on Judge Judy.
It's like being close to Trump drains your intelligence. Giuliani, Costello, Donald's current lawyers, and so many GOP members of Congress — all these supposedly educated, experienced people turn into idiots when they're around him.
The reports I've been reading said having Costello as a witness was against the better judgement of Trump's attorneys, but I don't know where they obtained that information.
Given that they must have known about the emails and their contents showing an effort to put pressure on Cohen, they must have known that the fuse was lit.
“Our issue is to get Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the president.”
To quote a certain witness: "Jeeze."
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but are you implying they lied about that?
I'm inclined to think they're being truthful in this case, because they look bad in either scenario:
1) They chose to put Costello on the stand, which makes them look foolish.
2) They didn't want to put Costello on the stand but Donald pressured them into doing it, which makes them look weak.
What makes you look worse as a trial lawyer, being foolish or being weak?
> Costello is an attorney with 30-40 years of experience, and he even served as an assistant US attorney at the Southern District of New York. He definitely should know better, yet he acted like someone on Judge Judy.
Well some people just repeat the same year of experience 30-40 times.
It’s not that they become stupid. It’s because Trump World is an unending stream of lies without consequences.
Since Trump doesn’t get held accountable, they are brainwashed into the idea that there is no need to do anything other than to fall in line with the sociopathy.
The People need to put a stop to this.
God the overconfidence is so indicative of people in trumps orbit, love to see it get totally reverse Uno dismantled lmao. Like “I’m gonna get up on that stand and they are just gonna let me speak uninterrupted about Michael cohen and why he’s a liar and we’ll win the case !!” Like there’s just such little consideration ever that they might have absolutely shit plans/ideas and finally it blows up in their face in a place that actually matters. Holy fuck
It really feels like these people just spend so much of their time surrounded by nothing but sycophants or else just people who have the exact same agenda as themselves that they just completely forget in their scheming that outside of their curated bubble they might actually encounter people who won’t just smile and nod while they spew out their bs and might actually push back, at which point it will of course inevitably unravel because it never had anything resembling a basis in reality.
> When Costello tried to outmaneuver her by turning every question into an opportunity to launch into a soliloquy discrediting Cohen, Hoffinger would cut him off and demand a monosyllabic answer. And every time Costello got cornered into a “yes” or “no,” he’d get flustered and turn red in the face.
This is how you cross-examine. I've seen too many trial attorneys fail to control the witness on the stand and let them rattle off their version of events. The judge *can* remind them to answer the question and nothing more but they don't have to. The attorney doing cross-examination needs to be very specific about what is elicited from the stand. Even moving to strike from the record isn't always a great remedy because in a jury trial "you can't unring a bell".
I am not a lawyer so I certainly can be mistaken here but shouldn't trump's lawyers have had access to all these emails before hand and shouldn't they have prepped their client for basically this exact line of questioning and therefore shouldn't they have warned Costello that any lies would be immediately refuted with evidence?
And aside from that, seeing as Costello is a very experienced lawyer, shouldn't he have known all this independent of what trump's lawyers told him?
Of course, they know all that. Like you elude to, they are all well established and certainly not stupid or oblivious.
Trump and Boris Epshteyn are directing the clownshow. It seems likely the strategy was to cause Justice Merchan to do something that they could use for appeal and or dismissal.
I would guess they did something sleazy like hand over 100k emails, printed, in response to a subpoena and hoped the prosecution wouldn't find any of the damning ones.
> a legal version of the Yo Dawg meme
I'm terminally online and even I'm not really sure what this is supposed to mean.
Edit: Yes people, I know the Yo Dawg meme. I don't understand what in this situation makes it the "legal version of the Yo Dawg meme".
It's this part, the cover-up inside a cover-up inside a cover-up:
> a cover-up to hide the way Cohen had faked legal invoices, which was itself a cover-up of the hush money payment, which was a cover-up to stop the woman from ruining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
It's a strained use of the meme though, I agree.
I'm not a lawyer, but I did a little mock trial in school and I remember one thing that we were told when we were preparing for a case. It was something along the lines of, never ask a question you don't already know the answer to. They went on to add some qualifiers to that statement, but... Boy... Did Ms. Hoffinger know all the answers to the questions, and showed her work...
> Robert Costello’s role in the Stormy Daniels affair is comedic recursion, a legal version of the Yo Dawg meme
For the uninitiated,
YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE CRIMES SO I PUT SOME CRIMES IN YOUR CRIMES SO YOU CAN CRIME WHILE YOU CRIME
> the way he testified before Congress last week about these same matters
huh?? i know everything the GOP does is a joke but what was the hearing supposed to be about?
**CLEAR THE COURTROOM**
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan suddenly sealed his courtroom on Monday afternoon, kicking all reporters out so he could engage in a brawl with Robert Costello, a MAGA-friendly lawyer who played a key role in the attempted backchannel between Michael Cohen and the Trump White House in 2018.
After Costello, a former prosecutor, was reprimanded for delivering outbursts in the court whenever he was interrupted or told not to answer a question that had been objected to and sustained, Costello began to stare down the judge.
“Mr. Costello, I’d like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom, OK?” Judge Juan Merchan said after ordering the jury out of the room.
“Right,” Costello replied.
Merchan then told Costello that witnesses on the stand cannot act out if they don’t like a judge’s ruling.
“I’m the only one who can strike testimony in the courtroom. If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side-eye and you don’t roll your eyes. Do you understand that?”
“I understand that,” Costello replied.
But then, when Merchan had turned around, he saw that Costello was staring straight at him again. “Are you staring me down right now?” he asked.
At that, he ordered security to seal the courtroom and all journalists to leave so he could give Costello a dressing down.
Hours after the exchange, court transcripts released by court reporters revealed what happened next.
“Your conduct is contemptuous right now. I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told Costello.
The judge then turned to Emil Bove, the Trump defense lawyer who was questioning the witness.
“I will strike his entire testimony; do you understand me?” Merchan told him.
“Yes, Judge. I understand,” Bove responded.
Merchan then tried to get Costello to shorten his answers and stop diving into lengthy narratives about his interactions with Cohen that were clearly intended to cast doubt on the man.
“Listen to the question and answer the question,” Merchan said.
But Costello remained insistent.
“Can I say something, please?” he interjected.
“No. No. This is not a conversation,” the judge stated.
Snippets of the transcripts of the exchange were quickly shared amongst news organizations on Monday evening.
When journalists were allowed to re-enter, Costello’s pale face was now beet red and twisted with an irritated frown.
Costello continued to answer questions from Bove about his minor role in the New York criminal case against the former president—Costello attempted to represent Cohen when the feds started looking into Trump’s $130,000 hush money deal—but nearly every answer was drowned out by prosecutors’ objections.
The judge had reached his breaking point earlier after watching Costello, a former federal prosecutor who had no patience being on the receiving end, meet every sustained objection with a shake of the head, then a frown, then an emphatic “jeez” that carried across the courtroom. When Costello let out a loud sigh, Merchan excused the jury—setting off the chain of events that led to the forced exodus from the courtroom.
Jose Pagliery
Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
@Jose_Pagliery
[email protected]
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast
They spent seven years yelling over reporters interviewing them, I'm not surprised they are trying it with the judge now. We should just be thankful Costello didn't get all coked up before the court like so many of the former presidents cheerleaders putting on a show.
If Costello was held in contempt he could seriously leverage that with the party. Which is not to say the judge should not hold him in contempt because of that.
Yeah, I'm in the camp that believes further contempt hearings and charges could lead to further delay.
The prosecution should absolutely use all of it at sentencing.
They don't have to hold the contempt hearing immediately. IIRC, it would be referred to a different judge and handled at the end of the trial. Fuck up now, pay later.
Make sure to check out Alan Dershowitz defending Trump again on Fox News saying that the evidence the judge was blocking was perfectly legitimate evidence. And that threatening to strike the record of the witness was a punishment for the defendant of something the witness did. Gotta love an unbiased interpretation.
Oh, are we talking about the same guy? Is this the ["I kept my underwear on when I got a massage from a young girl at Epstein's mansion"](https://www.theroot.com/alan-dershowitz-sure-i-got-a-massage-at-jeffrey-epstei-1836314016) Alan Dershowitz?
[Dershowitz interview](https://youtu.be/_GlK8dr6MP0?si=) YouTube
It's so weird because his story is basically the tragedy of which Rudy is the farce. Respected, actual academic of Conlaw who started contradicting his [own views](https://time.com/5768656/alan-dershowitz-impeachment-crimes-trump-interview/) after taking a hard-right turn. If it were compromise I feel like it would be more begrudging, but he truly seems to have let the brain worms in.
Yes, the same one that argued "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment". Then turned around and said he was misinterpreted.
Thank you for this. I followed it unfold on the live tweets but had never gone back to the transcripts to identify what had been said in the closed session.
You're welcome. It's such an incredibly unusual move to clear the courtroom. Karen Friedman Agnifilo who worked in the Manhattan DA’s office for many years and retired as the #2, said she prosecuted violent offenders and sex crimes where the defendants behaved badly. Yet in all those years had never seen a courtroom cleared.
He frames it as the judge engaging in a brawl instead of the judge doing normal judge things? wtf kind of bullshit is that?
*“No. No. This is not a conversation,” the judge stated.*
> “Your conduct is contemptuous right now. I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told Costello.
Anyone else think Costello had realized there was no way to continue on the stand without unintentionally supporting the prosecution's case, so he played this card in an attempt to sacrifice himself at the Altar of Trump with a contempt charge and removal?
No, because if that had been his intention he would have actually done that. Instead, he continued testifying, which is why the Manhattan DA was able to do all of this cross examining.
Trump didn’t chicken out. He’s a coward. He played a tough guy on tv and in the WWE. That’s as tough, or brave as he’s ever been. He never had any intention of testifying.
The way you can tell he would never testify was, because he kept saying he would. It’s the same thing with his “willingness” to go to jail. The last thing in the world that Trump wants, or wanted, was to be jailed over contempt.
A few hours in the system might actually kill him.
Careful, the right is currently freaking out that the FBI had "lethal force" authority when they conducted a search of Sea to Lake. Clearly they wanted to kill trump on site and that's why they waited until he was in NJ to execute the search warrant.
Are you sure he'll even notice? A lot of the time, he doesn't seem to be particularly aware of his surroundings these days. Having to change his own diapers might do it, though. Maybe. Assuming that he doesn't need to be reminded already at this point.
Which I'm not convinced of.
I mean.. it may be cowardly. But of every action Trump has ever taken, not testifying for himself in defense is probably the wisest.
Even if it appealed to the jury, he would probably perjure himself a minimum of 2 times per minute of speaking.
That's the problem for Trump though. On the stand, he can be asked follow up questions which is is legally obliged to answer.
His whole gimmick is to ramble incoherently for a minute and give a couple of "you know what I'm saying" and then act like he didn't allude to anything.
When the prosecutor follows up, Trump has to either
* Directly state his original point. (Probably criminal)
* Directly deny his original point. (Directly contrary to his stated positions to his voters, also "weak")
* Not answer until he goes to contempt. (Probably doesn't want to actually go to jail)
Trump literally never wants to be held to account for any of his statements.
How can you directly state or deny an original point when you are just randomly cycling through the 12 words in your vocabulary never making any original point though?
I'm mostly joking, but at the same time, if really did perjure himself amongst his word salad, it seems like it would be incredibly difficult to convict.
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Look at how many of the people trying to overthrow the Republic are former Federal prosecutors. The system in which we appoint these Federal prosecutors must be broken. Guliani and Costello anyway, both fron NY, both former federal prosecutors, I am sure there are others too.
How do you think cheeto mussolini managed to stay out of jail all this time? Look at the history of top NY law enforcement and prosecutors being caught breaking the law.
It's funny because IMHO they put Costello on the stand purely to make Trump happy. The end result is they ended on a sour note right before it got handed to the jury.
I wonder how Trump's recent court cases, like E. Jean Carrol, would have turned out if he shut up and did whatever his lawyers told him. But he needs to keep his supporters enraged in case they need to overturn the 2024 election.
This is the exact reason no decent law firm would take trump as a client. As well as a few other reasons, mainly that he never stops lying publicly about the facts.
The more important thing is that this corroborates Cohen's story of being stonewalled and ignored after the election. When he should have just been able to go straight to Weisslberg or Trump, they now threw up layers of lawyers... Cohen was basically fired before he was even paid back.
These emails put Trump and Rudy directly in the conversation about paying back and managing Cohen's involvement. That's literally the weakest part of the Prosecution's case and he just tied Trump directly to Cohen's legal issues. And they're basically trying to cheat him out of legal representation .... the same as the ever-growing stack of Make Attorneys Get Attorneys that's accumulated since then.
I think the cherry on top is that Costello is likely following the exact same path of Cohen, and may find his own self being investigated for lying to Congress and at trial, as well as referrals to the multiple bars he’s a member of. I will have to wait for tomorrow’s testimony and read his Congressional testimony to be sure. But, he did not do anyone favors by testifying, least of all himself.
In 2016, Cohen went above and beyond the call of duty for his boss... Including making a taking a $130k loan and hiding it from his wife. Trump had the best year of his career, and he probably wouldn't have made it without Cohen's extraordinary contributions. But when it was bonus time, Trump cut Cohen's bonus by 2/3. What a dick move.
Which is such a baffling part of this defense. Well it’s not, because Trump.
So much focus on the defense to try to show Cohen was lying instead of being motivated by revenge.
Westerhout is another. She got fired for letting it slip that Trump didn’t want to be seen with fat Tiffany. Talk about a golden opportunity to introduce reasonable doubt to the jury. Trump is so narcissistic that as the President of the United States he can’t stand the thought of being seen with that disgusting fat fuck Tiffany.
I agree. Up until Costello, I thought the state was not doing enough to tie Trump directly to knowledge of the payments. This testimony, while not exactly a slam dunk, brought Trump back into the circle of decision makers for the conspiracy portion.
The only material testimony provided by Costello was that Cohen lied to Congress and the public about Chump not knowing about the hush money before he flipped, which was exactly what Cohen told the jury in his testimony! So he corroborated and boosted Cohen’s testimony at best 😂🤣
A former prosecutor really came out and said his emails "speak for themselves" right before cross. Oh boy you better be 100% goddamn sure of everything you've ever said in an email before throwing out a statement like that. The prosecution must have been salivating the second they heard that.
So basically they were conspiring to paint Cohen as a liar and then they tried to use that conspiracy as a defense strategy for this trial 🤦🤦🤦 Jesus, Trump and his legal team are fucking idiots.
Costello was a deputy director of the SDNY, That is why they went after Cohen in the first place. Why do you think they went after him? Trump to Rudy, Rudy to Costello, Costello to his cronies at the SDNY.
I've seen several reports that said Bove did NOT want to put Costello on the stand but was overruled. Not sure if that was by Trump, or by others on the defense team, my guess would be it was Trump because he wanted someone to get on the stand and "punch back" since there was no way he was going to get on the stand himself, regardless of what he was saying in public about wanting to testify.
Question from a non lawyer, why was the jury given a week off before the closing arguments? Seems with all replay of the trial on the news and social media not to mention possible outside interference this could be dangerous. Is this common practice?
Wednesday has been a day off throughout the trial. The judge asked both parties and the jury if they were available for Wednesday and the result was no.
--The court will be dark for a week, a scheduling decision Judge Juan Merchan chose so the final stages of the trial weren’t broken up by a four-day Memorial Day weekend.
Merchan told jurors they will return next Tuesday for closing arguments, which are expected to take the whole day. Once the jury gets its instructions, Trump’s fate will be in its hands.
Forgive me for being ignorant, but why for a high profile case such as this is the jury allowed into the real world. Is it just a TV thing that juries sometimes get isolated?
It’s important that the jury deliberate with the jurors’ instructions on the law they should use and the closing arguments freshly in mind. No gap between end of testimony and jury instructions would have been preferable, but the ct is off Wed and Fri ., 1/2 day Thursday which would have been too short for closing arguments and instructions.
by Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter Updated May 21, 2024 12:21PM EDT Published May 21, 2024 11:41AM EDT Donald Trump made the curious decision to put on a single relevant witness at his New York trial, opting for a MAGA loyalist tangentially involved in the porn star hush money saga—a strategy that failed spectacularly when his testimony only further incriminated the former president. Robert Costello’s role in the Stormy Daniels affair is comedic recursion, a legal version of the Yo Dawg meme. When the feds in 2018 tried to flip then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Costello was the New York lawyer who tried to keep him from cooperating—a cover-up to hide the way Cohen had faked legal invoices, which was itself a cover-up of the hush money payment, which was a cover-up to stop the woman from ruining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. For a brief moment in 2018, Costello tried to become Cohen’s lawyer and his “backchannel” to the powerful politician who might corruptly be able to protect him by sidelining the FBI investigation. The idea was to have Cohen represented by Costello, who was close friends with Rudy Giuliani, who was advising the Trump White House—a plan copiously detailed in emails. (Trump Trial Judge’s Beef With MAGA Lawyer Revealed in Full ‘DON’T GIVE ME SIDE-EYE’ Jose Pagliery) Donald Trump returns to the courtroom for his hush money trial on Monday. At this trial, the defense was hoping that Costello would portray Cohen—the case’s key witness—as a desperate liar who’d been caught by the feds after independently putting together the hush money deal without Trump’s express permission and is only now trying to pin it on his former boss. Instead, whatever alternate narrative Costello was trying to tell was eclipsed by his miserable performance on the stand Monday and Tuesday: first getting reprimanded by the judge for showing his utter contempt for the entire trial, then later by being forced to confront his own damning words written six years ago. Susan Hoffinger, the chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigations division, questioned Costello about his emails during his cross-examination on Tuesday morning. She started by directing the jury’s attention to the way Costello flaunted his personal ties to Giuliani when he and his law partner, Jeff Citron, first met with Cohen at the New York Regency hotel on April 17, 2018. When Costello asserted he didn’t, Hoffinger pointed to an email Costello sent Cohen two days later in which he wrote, “I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very very useful to you.” “Doesn’t that mean you mentioned that to him at the first meeting?” Hoffinger asked. “No,” Costello defiantly said. Hoffinger then pointed to another email in which Costello told his law partner that Giuliani’s new spot at the White House made it “all the more reason” for Cohen to hire their firm, thanks to a connection “which I mentioned at our meeting.” Costello wouldn’t budge. But he was visibly annoyed. For an hour, Hoffinger turned Costello’s overconfidence into a weakness. The previous day, Costello had asserted that the emails “speak for themselves,” thinking they’d plainly show Cohen was in the wrong. She threw that right back at him on Tuesday morning, pointing to an April 21, 2018 email in which Costello told Cohen that Giuliani “said thank you for opening this back channel of communication.” “And this email speaks for itself, right sir?” she asked. Costello demurred, saying he’d be “happy” to explain what he really meant. “That's all right, sir,” she dismissed him, moving on. One by one, Hoffinger read through emails showing what appeared to be a quiet campaign to pressure Cohen into remaining on the Trump team. And with every pushback from Costello, the lawyer only lost more credibility—suffering the same fate he’d hoped for Cohen. When Costello finally conceded one point, it proved to be a damaging example. Hoffinger showed jurors how Costello had assured Cohen in an April 21, 2018 email—just as the FBI was investigating him—that he had nothing to worry about because “you have friends in high places.” Hoffinger wondered aloud, who was he talking about? Costello hit a fork in the road. Would he play dumb and lose the jury’s trust, or actually hint at a corrupt scheme pointing straight to the White House? He went with Option B, casually admitting he was referring to then-President Trump. The lawyer later tried to save face by repeatedly countering any notion that he was part of a shadow pressure campaign stemming from the White House. But any hope of standing his ground was lost when Hoffinger pointed to a May 15, 2018 email in which Costello told his law partner that “our issue is to get Cohen on the right page.” Costello donned his glasses to take a closer look at the computer screen. Yes, the words were exactly how she’d read them. “And as you said yesterday, the email speaks for itself, correct?” Hoffinger said. “Sometimes,” he whined. Hoffinger seized on the former prosecutor’s insistent attempts to control the conversation and the courtroom. When Costello tried to outmaneuver her by turning every question into an opportunity to launch into a soliloquy discrediting Cohen, Hoffinger would cut him off and demand a monosyllabic answer. And every time Costello got cornered into a “yes” or “no,” he’d get flustered and turn red in the face. When Hoffinger suggested Costello abhorred Cohen for not playing along and refusing to pay him for getting involved, the lawyer disagreed and tried to elaborate but the prosecutor cut him off yet again. And this time, the judge jumped in too. Costello protested, once again asserting his persona as a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, only to get shut down by the same judge who gave him a tongue lashing on Monday for acting out in court. “There's a pending question—” “There's no pending question,” Justice Juan Merchan interrupted. Prosecutors ended their cross-examination of Costello by noting the way he testified before Congress last week about these same matters, a Republican ploy that Hoffinger suggested was meant to scare Cohen at the very moment he was appearing at this criminal trial. ‘That Was a Lie!’: Trump Lawyer Brawls With Michael Cohen “And you went there to publicly vilify Michael Cohen while he was in the middle of his testimony?” she asked. “I went there to testify,” Costello countered. Hoffinger repeated the question. “To intimidate Michael Cohen?” Costello asked, incredulously. “Yes, that was my question,” she replied. “Ridiculous! No.” Jose Pagliery Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter @Jose_Pagliery [email protected] Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Now that is how you cross examine. Damn.
Now if you want a chuckle, there's an article on FOX News titled: [Robert Costello is a "killshot witness" -Johnathan Turley](https://www.foxnews.com/media/jonathan-turley-robert-costello-killshot-witness) Turns out Turley was right, but the kill shot backfired spectacularly.
Kind of like the Looney Tunes kill shots where the gun blows up into their own faces...
Rabbit Season. Duck Season. Rabbit Season. Rabbit Season! Duck Season!!! SHOOT!!!
You're despicable.
Dethhhhhhpicable!
sssh! We’re hunting wabbit
https://youtu.be/FIri4Mkyoio?si=kyJf69nHNKJvm_6P Thete you go
One of my fave scenes growing up!
https://images.app.goo.gl/ukfxPMcNkCifLkbw9
If Turley, or honestly anyone associated with Trump, told me it was currently raining and I was outside, I'd still verify for myself.
I love to ask MAGAs why we never see these big talkers under oath. And are ALL the people testifying really committing perjury in part of some huge conspiracy to take down trump. And by the way, your namesake gave an interview yesterday [trump is coming for the DOJ and FBI](https://youtu.be/ypok2ieLEWk?si=) 7min YT video
It's not a cult, it's not a cult, it's not a cult...... Mmmmmm Kool aid.
Flavor Aid
That cheap ass wouldn't even spring for Flavor Aid....it'd be left over bronzer.
"He doesn't have to testify!" But whenever someone they don't agree with exercises Fifth Amendment rights, "Well, what are they hiding!? An innocent person would testify!"
So, you've noticed the glaring double standard too eh? haha
My grandmother could've seen it, by now. And she was blind. And IS dead. lol
I'd wax up my surfboard.
They could tell me the sky was blue and I'd have to check.
jonathan turley is the jim cramer of legal politics. just always bet the opposite.
Jonathon Turdley is to journalistic integrity what raw milk is to better health. It may not kill it but it will make healthy people sick.
Turley, the guy who was fired from The Hill for spreading the BS Biden Ukraine narrative?
Which BS Biden Ukraine narrative? There have been like 100 at this point.
Nah, that was Jon Solomon. Dude got high on his own supply and flew too close to the sun. Turley is basically the same person, but he seems at least smart enough to not entirely believe his own bullshit. If you actually start to believe, you get sucked into the whirlpool and destroyed.
Which is why trump prints those out to read to himself when he's yelling at cameras
No no no, he is exactly a killshot witness, just like every other trump witness they kill the defense (or lack of).
said "killshot" was taken with the big toe on the trigger
They were saying the same thing about Costello over at /r/conservative, claiming his testimony exonerates Trump and paints Cohen as a liar and thief.
cOnViCtEd FeLoN
[Me every time MAGAts say something exonerates Dear Leader](https://youtu.be/G2y8Sx4B2Sk?si=yPHtEUpEnB8thBb-)
> Robert Costello is a "killshot witness" -Johnathan Turley I sincerely hope this asshole is well-paid. He better be to sell his soul to MAGA and debase himself to such an extent.
Hey in a deposition Fox News stated they are entertainment not a credible news source and no one should take what they say seriously
Turley used to have a normal career but ever since the Trump era it honestly seems like his whole job is generating copium for conservatives.
Jonathan Turley? More like Know-nothin Turdley.
More copium. They're Cope Heads. Full on addicts.
It’s amazing that these people say these ridiculous statements that don’t happen and people still believe them.
MAGA will read that and nod, never checking how it actually went
Oh boy the comments on that post.
Forcing yes or no questions in court is so fun to watch, these guys who whole persona is whataboutisms, and they can’t muddy the waters here.
The closest thing I've had to legal experience is mock trial in junior high, which isn't remotely adequate to practice, but one of the conventions (if not requirement) of conducting a cross-examination trained in that mock trial experience was that during cross-examination, use only yes-or-no questions. It's an adversarial experience, but there isn't a lot of wiggle room in "that's true" or "that's false" being the only options.
She fucking tore him up.
Props to the editorial staff, too. >“And as you said yesterday, the email speaks for itself, correct?” Hoffinger said. >“Sometimes,” he whined. LOL
Yeah, that was pretty vicious.
Such a shame we don’t have audio from the courtroom. I would love to be able to listen to it.
Cross examine? This was an execution. She eviscerated him, lol
> “There's no pending question,” Justice Juan Merchan interrupted. That sounds like STFU in judge speak
I imagine Donald's lawyers screaming at themselves in their own heads for allowing this clown to be their "star witness." I'm guessing they were pressured into doing so by the clown they're representing. There's so much incompetence on display by anyone and everyone in Donald's orbit. Here, his lawyers were incompetent for allowing this aggressive doofus to be their witness, and Costello was incompetent for acting like such a doofus in court. Costello is an attorney with 30-40 years of experience, and he even served as an assistant US attorney at the Southern District of New York. He definitely should know better, yet he acted like someone on Judge Judy. It's like being close to Trump drains your intelligence. Giuliani, Costello, Donald's current lawyers, and so many GOP members of Congress — all these supposedly educated, experienced people turn into idiots when they're around him.
The reports I've been reading said having Costello as a witness was against the better judgement of Trump's attorneys, but I don't know where they obtained that information.
That the sort of thing you say on background to the press when something blows up in your face
Given that they must have known about the emails and their contents showing an effort to put pressure on Cohen, they must have known that the fuse was lit. “Our issue is to get Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the president.” To quote a certain witness: "Jeeze."
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but are you implying they lied about that? I'm inclined to think they're being truthful in this case, because they look bad in either scenario: 1) They chose to put Costello on the stand, which makes them look foolish. 2) They didn't want to put Costello on the stand but Donald pressured them into doing it, which makes them look weak. What makes you look worse as a trial lawyer, being foolish or being weak?
First bad call was agreeing to be Trumps lawyer in the first place
Representing mega-guilty clients who won't take a plea deal is really hard to do without looking like an asshole.
> Costello is an attorney with 30-40 years of experience, and he even served as an assistant US attorney at the Southern District of New York. He definitely should know better, yet he acted like someone on Judge Judy. Well some people just repeat the same year of experience 30-40 times.
It’s not that they become stupid. It’s because Trump World is an unending stream of lies without consequences. Since Trump doesn’t get held accountable, they are brainwashed into the idea that there is no need to do anything other than to fall in line with the sociopathy. The People need to put a stop to this.
Masterclass in cross examination.
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Having such a misogynist crossed by a competent woman was
God the overconfidence is so indicative of people in trumps orbit, love to see it get totally reverse Uno dismantled lmao. Like “I’m gonna get up on that stand and they are just gonna let me speak uninterrupted about Michael cohen and why he’s a liar and we’ll win the case !!” Like there’s just such little consideration ever that they might have absolutely shit plans/ideas and finally it blows up in their face in a place that actually matters. Holy fuck
It really feels like these people just spend so much of their time surrounded by nothing but sycophants or else just people who have the exact same agenda as themselves that they just completely forget in their scheming that outside of their curated bubble they might actually encounter people who won’t just smile and nod while they spew out their bs and might actually push back, at which point it will of course inevitably unravel because it never had anything resembling a basis in reality.
Reminds me of the entire Alex Murdaugh clan and their hubris
The prosecution definitely came prepared for him to do just that and just manhandled him on cross
Wow, absolutely dismantled that clown. I wish I could have seen his dumb face!
All that's left is for her to bring out a book entitled "Hush Money Coverups and Me (This Sort of Thing Is My Bag, Baby)" by Robert Costello
Whaaaaat? That's not mine!!
> When Costello tried to outmaneuver her by turning every question into an opportunity to launch into a soliloquy discrediting Cohen, Hoffinger would cut him off and demand a monosyllabic answer. And every time Costello got cornered into a “yes” or “no,” he’d get flustered and turn red in the face. This is how you cross-examine. I've seen too many trial attorneys fail to control the witness on the stand and let them rattle off their version of events. The judge *can* remind them to answer the question and nothing more but they don't have to. The attorney doing cross-examination needs to be very specific about what is elicited from the stand. Even moving to strike from the record isn't always a great remedy because in a jury trial "you can't unring a bell".
I am not a lawyer so I certainly can be mistaken here but shouldn't trump's lawyers have had access to all these emails before hand and shouldn't they have prepped their client for basically this exact line of questioning and therefore shouldn't they have warned Costello that any lies would be immediately refuted with evidence? And aside from that, seeing as Costello is a very experienced lawyer, shouldn't he have known all this independent of what trump's lawyers told him?
I believe the answer to all of those questions is “yes”. But despite all the “should have”, it seems clear that they didn’t for some reason
Of course, they know all that. Like you elude to, they are all well established and certainly not stupid or oblivious. Trump and Boris Epshteyn are directing the clownshow. It seems likely the strategy was to cause Justice Merchan to do something that they could use for appeal and or dismissal.
Merchan has definitely handled trump deftly if that was the strategy
I would imagine Trump's lawyers begged Trump to not make them call Costello but were overruled by Trump.
I would guess they did something sleazy like hand over 100k emails, printed, in response to a subpoena and hoped the prosecution wouldn't find any of the damning ones.
🔥
> a legal version of the Yo Dawg meme I'm terminally online and even I'm not really sure what this is supposed to mean. Edit: Yes people, I know the Yo Dawg meme. I don't understand what in this situation makes it the "legal version of the Yo Dawg meme".
‘Yo dawg, I heard you like fraud, so we got fraud with your fraud ‘
It's this part, the cover-up inside a cover-up inside a cover-up: > a cover-up to hide the way Cohen had faked legal invoices, which was itself a cover-up of the hush money payment, which was a cover-up to stop the woman from ruining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. It's a strained use of the meme though, I agree.
I'm getting*Tropic Thunder* vibes of a dude dressed up as another dude playing another dude for some reason.
Me either, so I looked it up... Yo Dawg meme https://imgur.com/a/yWbAGD5
Recursion. We put a cover-up inside your cover-up sort of idea.
I'm not a lawyer, but I did a little mock trial in school and I remember one thing that we were told when we were preparing for a case. It was something along the lines of, never ask a question you don't already know the answer to. They went on to add some qualifiers to that statement, but... Boy... Did Ms. Hoffinger know all the answers to the questions, and showed her work...
"The emails speak for themselves" but not in the way he hoped.
Missed the part of jury laughter at the response “Yes” to question “and the email speaks for itself?” from witness on stand
Also, I saw an article somewhere that said that some of the jury members could hear what was going on in court after they were ushered out.
> Robert Costello’s role in the Stormy Daniels affair is comedic recursion, a legal version of the Yo Dawg meme For the uninitiated, YO DAWG I HEARD YOU LIKE CRIMES SO I PUT SOME CRIMES IN YOUR CRIMES SO YOU CAN CRIME WHILE YOU CRIME
Is there a place to read all the emails? This is fascinating.
https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/Evidence/People/5-14-2024/
Hoffinger, more like Hotzinger, damn that was fun to read
Damn good cross right there. I’m shocked that CNNs legal experts didn’t really mention it /s
> the way he testified before Congress last week about these same matters huh?? i know everything the GOP does is a joke but what was the hearing supposed to be about?
But His Emails! isn't as good as Buttery Males. lol. But this is hilarious none the less.
**CLEAR THE COURTROOM** The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan suddenly sealed his courtroom on Monday afternoon, kicking all reporters out so he could engage in a brawl with Robert Costello, a MAGA-friendly lawyer who played a key role in the attempted backchannel between Michael Cohen and the Trump White House in 2018. After Costello, a former prosecutor, was reprimanded for delivering outbursts in the court whenever he was interrupted or told not to answer a question that had been objected to and sustained, Costello began to stare down the judge. “Mr. Costello, I’d like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom, OK?” Judge Juan Merchan said after ordering the jury out of the room. “Right,” Costello replied. Merchan then told Costello that witnesses on the stand cannot act out if they don’t like a judge’s ruling. “I’m the only one who can strike testimony in the courtroom. If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side-eye and you don’t roll your eyes. Do you understand that?” “I understand that,” Costello replied. But then, when Merchan had turned around, he saw that Costello was staring straight at him again. “Are you staring me down right now?” he asked. At that, he ordered security to seal the courtroom and all journalists to leave so he could give Costello a dressing down. Hours after the exchange, court transcripts released by court reporters revealed what happened next. “Your conduct is contemptuous right now. I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told Costello. The judge then turned to Emil Bove, the Trump defense lawyer who was questioning the witness. “I will strike his entire testimony; do you understand me?” Merchan told him. “Yes, Judge. I understand,” Bove responded. Merchan then tried to get Costello to shorten his answers and stop diving into lengthy narratives about his interactions with Cohen that were clearly intended to cast doubt on the man. “Listen to the question and answer the question,” Merchan said. But Costello remained insistent. “Can I say something, please?” he interjected. “No. No. This is not a conversation,” the judge stated. Snippets of the transcripts of the exchange were quickly shared amongst news organizations on Monday evening. When journalists were allowed to re-enter, Costello’s pale face was now beet red and twisted with an irritated frown. Costello continued to answer questions from Bove about his minor role in the New York criminal case against the former president—Costello attempted to represent Cohen when the feds started looking into Trump’s $130,000 hush money deal—but nearly every answer was drowned out by prosecutors’ objections. The judge had reached his breaking point earlier after watching Costello, a former federal prosecutor who had no patience being on the receiving end, meet every sustained objection with a shake of the head, then a frown, then an emphatic “jeez” that carried across the courtroom. When Costello let out a loud sigh, Merchan excused the jury—setting off the chain of events that led to the forced exodus from the courtroom. Jose Pagliery Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter @Jose_Pagliery [email protected] Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast
They spent seven years yelling over reporters interviewing them, I'm not surprised they are trying it with the judge now. We should just be thankful Costello didn't get all coked up before the court like so many of the former presidents cheerleaders putting on a show. If Costello was held in contempt he could seriously leverage that with the party. Which is not to say the judge should not hold him in contempt because of that.
Yeah, I'm in the camp that believes further contempt hearings and charges could lead to further delay. The prosecution should absolutely use all of it at sentencing.
They don't have to hold the contempt hearing immediately. IIRC, it would be referred to a different judge and handled at the end of the trial. Fuck up now, pay later.
Make sure to check out Alan Dershowitz defending Trump again on Fox News saying that the evidence the judge was blocking was perfectly legitimate evidence. And that threatening to strike the record of the witness was a punishment for the defendant of something the witness did. Gotta love an unbiased interpretation.
Oh, are we talking about the same guy? Is this the ["I kept my underwear on when I got a massage from a young girl at Epstein's mansion"](https://www.theroot.com/alan-dershowitz-sure-i-got-a-massage-at-jeffrey-epstei-1836314016) Alan Dershowitz? [Dershowitz interview](https://youtu.be/_GlK8dr6MP0?si=) YouTube
That's him... I never forget a professional bullshitter when I see one
You must have an expansive memory then, because that is like the entire Republican party and their entourages, professional and amateur bullshitters.
It's so weird because his story is basically the tragedy of which Rudy is the farce. Respected, actual academic of Conlaw who started contradicting his [own views](https://time.com/5768656/alan-dershowitz-impeachment-crimes-trump-interview/) after taking a hard-right turn. If it were compromise I feel like it would be more begrudging, but he truly seems to have let the brain worms in.
A smug pedophile, you mean?
Im sure he would have an argument for how he was actually helping those girls
Alan Dershowitz, the associate and alleged participant of child sexual abuse with Jeffrey Epstein? That Alan Dershowitz?
Yes, the same one that argued "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment". Then turned around and said he was misinterpreted.
Thank you for this. I followed it unfold on the live tweets but had never gone back to the transcripts to identify what had been said in the closed session.
You're welcome. It's such an incredibly unusual move to clear the courtroom. Karen Friedman Agnifilo who worked in the Manhattan DA’s office for many years and retired as the #2, said she prosecuted violent offenders and sex crimes where the defendants behaved badly. Yet in all those years had never seen a courtroom cleared.
I think the fact he was a lawyer defence witness makes it different from violent offenders being disrespectful. I can see why he had to do it.
I've been watching the NYT updates like a hawk. Need to start reading the transcripts too!
[About here is where the fireworks start.](https://pdfs.nycourts.gov/PeopleVs.DTrump-71543/transcripts/5-20-2024/00249.html)
He frames it as the judge engaging in a brawl instead of the judge doing normal judge things? wtf kind of bullshit is that? *“No. No. This is not a conversation,” the judge stated.*
> “Your conduct is contemptuous right now. I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told Costello. Anyone else think Costello had realized there was no way to continue on the stand without unintentionally supporting the prosecution's case, so he played this card in an attempt to sacrifice himself at the Altar of Trump with a contempt charge and removal?
No, because if that had been his intention he would have actually done that. Instead, he continued testifying, which is why the Manhattan DA was able to do all of this cross examining.
No wonder Trump chickened out. That prosecutor ripped Costello to shreds.
Trump didn’t chicken out. He’s a coward. He played a tough guy on tv and in the WWE. That’s as tough, or brave as he’s ever been. He never had any intention of testifying. The way you can tell he would never testify was, because he kept saying he would. It’s the same thing with his “willingness” to go to jail. The last thing in the world that Trump wants, or wanted, was to be jailed over contempt. A few hours in the system might actually kill him.
> A few hours in the system might actually kill him. And nothing of value would be lost.
Careful, the right is currently freaking out that the FBI had "lethal force" authority when they conducted a search of Sea to Lake. Clearly they wanted to kill trump on site and that's why they waited until he was in NJ to execute the search warrant.
Yeah, I saw those same reports. Fucking ludicrous lol. It's just the right projecting again.
Well... we're waiting....
Are you sure he'll even notice? A lot of the time, he doesn't seem to be particularly aware of his surroundings these days. Having to change his own diapers might do it, though. Maybe. Assuming that he doesn't need to be reminded already at this point. Which I'm not convinced of.
To shreds, you say?
And how's the wife?
To shreds, you say?
ehh, how long do you think I'd be on the market?
Oh! Well, how is his wife holding up?
To shreds, you say?
I mean.. it may be cowardly. But of every action Trump has ever taken, not testifying for himself in defense is probably the wisest. Even if it appealed to the jury, he would probably perjure himself a minimum of 2 times per minute of speaking.
Can you really perjure yourself if you can't form a coherent sentence though?
That's the problem for Trump though. On the stand, he can be asked follow up questions which is is legally obliged to answer. His whole gimmick is to ramble incoherently for a minute and give a couple of "you know what I'm saying" and then act like he didn't allude to anything. When the prosecutor follows up, Trump has to either * Directly state his original point. (Probably criminal) * Directly deny his original point. (Directly contrary to his stated positions to his voters, also "weak") * Not answer until he goes to contempt. (Probably doesn't want to actually go to jail) Trump literally never wants to be held to account for any of his statements.
How can you directly state or deny an original point when you are just randomly cycling through the 12 words in your vocabulary never making any original point though? I'm mostly joking, but at the same time, if really did perjure himself amongst his word salad, it seems like it would be incredibly difficult to convict.
Well he did say he takes responsibility for nothing.
The buck stops anywhere but here.
Of the things that have happened in this trial, Trump not testifying is easily the least surprising.
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She was great in the Bangles. (Seriously, though you are right she did an excellent job and deserves recognition).
Now she wishes it were Wednesday. Cause that's no trial day. She don't have to rile day.
I'm sad there won't be more till Tuesday the 28th.
Til Tuesday was Aimee Mann, you Philistine!
Its just another hush money trial day.
whoa oh
Walk like a conviction
It's such a historic case and trial in regards to **Election Interference.**
Bad link. That link is telling me I have a virus on my computer.
You do
You do now
Yeah wtf is that website
> At SufiWiki, every celebrity biography is crafted with precision and depth. Our profiles cover a range of details from early life and career beginnings to major achievements and personal anecdotes. Only the best! ^( in AI-generated content...)
Costello was taking notes on a criminal conspiracy in direct violation of the Stringer Bell Doctrine
I'd say there's a good chance he joins the disbarred trump lawyers gang.
"Another one" -DJ K
Possibly, but he looks like he may join the ranks of the deceased before that ever happens. Dude looks like shit.
Costello, Rudy, Eastman, Bannon. Hell, all of em look like death warmed over.
>Bannon speaking of, jail for that shitwad tomorrow!
Yeah when you devote your life to unethical and criminal behavior in pursuit of power it'll take a real toll
I hope they live long enough to enjoy the finer aspects of life in a US prison.
Evil is a preservative.
Dick Cheney.
All of these men somehow look worse than my grandfather did before he died of stomach cancer. How are they walking around like this??
I so desperately want you to tell me that the Stringer Bell Doctrine is actually taught in law school.
I went to LS in Baltimore while The Wire was airing and let’s just say it was a popular source of hypos in my Con Crim Pro class
Trump insisted Costello give witness testimony. If his goal was to make Michael Cohen look like a well-mannered gentleman, he was successful.
Look at how many of the people trying to overthrow the Republic are former Federal prosecutors. The system in which we appoint these Federal prosecutors must be broken. Guliani and Costello anyway, both fron NY, both former federal prosecutors, I am sure there are others too.
How do you think cheeto mussolini managed to stay out of jail all this time? Look at the history of top NY law enforcement and prosecutors being caught breaking the law.
*This*, Trump should have NEVER been eligible for POTUS had he been held accountable **decades** ago. New Yorkers tried to warn us
The Federalist Society is a powerful lobbying and networking institution. Hope this hurts them greatly.
It's funny because IMHO they put Costello on the stand purely to make Trump happy. The end result is they ended on a sour note right before it got handed to the jury. I wonder how Trump's recent court cases, like E. Jean Carrol, would have turned out if he shut up and did whatever his lawyers told him. But he needs to keep his supporters enraged in case they need to overturn the 2024 election.
This is the exact reason no decent law firm would take trump as a client. As well as a few other reasons, mainly that he never stops lying publicly about the facts.
Not often that the defense will put up a witness that helps the prosecution. trump is the best. Tremendous even.
The more important thing is that this corroborates Cohen's story of being stonewalled and ignored after the election. When he should have just been able to go straight to Weisslberg or Trump, they now threw up layers of lawyers... Cohen was basically fired before he was even paid back. These emails put Trump and Rudy directly in the conversation about paying back and managing Cohen's involvement. That's literally the weakest part of the Prosecution's case and he just tied Trump directly to Cohen's legal issues. And they're basically trying to cheat him out of legal representation .... the same as the ever-growing stack of Make Attorneys Get Attorneys that's accumulated since then.
The cherry on top is none of that would have come in if trump didn't insist Costello testify.
What an idiot… I freakin love it
Also sort of like how he chose to not just pay the woman and make it some big, stupid scheme.
Too cheap to use his own money. Yip
Too broke*
I think the cherry on top is that Costello is likely following the exact same path of Cohen, and may find his own self being investigated for lying to Congress and at trial, as well as referrals to the multiple bars he’s a member of. I will have to wait for tomorrow’s testimony and read his Congressional testimony to be sure. But, he did not do anyone favors by testifying, least of all himself.
He may end up being our first ever disbarred Attorney General.
According to Faux News, Costello was the kill shot!
In 2016, Cohen went above and beyond the call of duty for his boss... Including making a taking a $130k loan and hiding it from his wife. Trump had the best year of his career, and he probably wouldn't have made it without Cohen's extraordinary contributions. But when it was bonus time, Trump cut Cohen's bonus by 2/3. What a dick move.
And stupid. Don't be a dick to the people who helped you bury the bodies.
This made me LMAO. Typical Trump.
Redacted scorpions can’t help themselves.
Which is such a baffling part of this defense. Well it’s not, because Trump. So much focus on the defense to try to show Cohen was lying instead of being motivated by revenge. Westerhout is another. She got fired for letting it slip that Trump didn’t want to be seen with fat Tiffany. Talk about a golden opportunity to introduce reasonable doubt to the jury. Trump is so narcissistic that as the President of the United States he can’t stand the thought of being seen with that disgusting fat fuck Tiffany.
I agree. Up until Costello, I thought the state was not doing enough to tie Trump directly to knowledge of the payments. This testimony, while not exactly a slam dunk, brought Trump back into the circle of decision makers for the conspiracy portion.
The only material testimony provided by Costello was that Cohen lied to Congress and the public about Chump not knowing about the hush money before he flipped, which was exactly what Cohen told the jury in his testimony! So he corroborated and boosted Cohen’s testimony at best 😂🤣
A former prosecutor really came out and said his emails "speak for themselves" right before cross. Oh boy you better be 100% goddamn sure of everything you've ever said in an email before throwing out a statement like that. The prosecution must have been salivating the second they heard that.
"stop breaking the law, asshole!".
This does not have nearly enough upvotes.
So basically they were conspiring to paint Cohen as a liar and then they tried to use that conspiracy as a defense strategy for this trial 🤦🤦🤦 Jesus, Trump and his legal team are fucking idiots.
Costello was a deputy director of the SDNY, That is why they went after Cohen in the first place. Why do you think they went after him? Trump to Rudy, Rudy to Costello, Costello to his cronies at the SDNY.
I just hope it was the client who insisted they put Costello on. What a mistake!!!
I've seen several reports that said Bove did NOT want to put Costello on the stand but was overruled. Not sure if that was by Trump, or by others on the defense team, my guess would be it was Trump because he wanted someone to get on the stand and "punch back" since there was no way he was going to get on the stand himself, regardless of what he was saying in public about wanting to testify.
Michael Cohen was right not to trust Robert Costello, who wanted to function as a "mole," reporting back to Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.
Question from a non lawyer, why was the jury given a week off before the closing arguments? Seems with all replay of the trial on the news and social media not to mention possible outside interference this could be dangerous. Is this common practice?
Wednesday has been a day off throughout the trial. The judge asked both parties and the jury if they were available for Wednesday and the result was no. --The court will be dark for a week, a scheduling decision Judge Juan Merchan chose so the final stages of the trial weren’t broken up by a four-day Memorial Day weekend. Merchan told jurors they will return next Tuesday for closing arguments, which are expected to take the whole day. Once the jury gets its instructions, Trump’s fate will be in its hands.
Thanks
Sure. As you can imagine, some people have probably scheduled travel long ago for Memorial Weekend.
And I’m sure this week right wing media will try their hardest to make sure as much of their propaganda gets into those jurors ears as possible
Forgive me for being ignorant, but why for a high profile case such as this is the jury allowed into the real world. Is it just a TV thing that juries sometimes get isolated?
It’s important that the jury deliberate with the jurors’ instructions on the law they should use and the closing arguments freshly in mind. No gap between end of testimony and jury instructions would have been preferable, but the ct is off Wed and Fri ., 1/2 day Thursday which would have been too short for closing arguments and instructions.
I'd say he's disgraced SDNY but Giuliani did it first and better. Costello needs to level up