perhaps he is finally trump’s cohn?
per cnn:
Defense attorney Emil Bove has resumed his questioning of Robert Costello.
There was no discussion of what just transpired.
Meanwhile, Bove has brought up an email between Michael Cohen and Costello.
Right now Costello is thinking, “Why won’t you just do what Trump says? Everyone else I know does!”
Damn. So what’s the chances this has negated any possible advantage the defense may have gotten from this witness. Hell I bet this exchange is what the jury remembers most about today’s testimony not any points the defense made this morning.
from cnn:
Trump attorney Emil Bove, who asks Robert Costello to keep his answers narrow, questions him about a lengthy phone call with Michael Cohen over Memorial Day weekend in 2018.
He asks Costello if he gave legal advice on the 96-minute call, without getting into details.
“Yes,” Costello says.
Trump attorney Emil Bove showed the jury an email from June 7, 2019=8, and phone records. The call lasted 46 minutes.
The email from Costello says that “after you called me back … I left a message for Rudy.”
Costello testified after reading the email that Cohen directed him to call Giuliani on his behalf.
“Mr Cohen was making constant complaints about Rudy Giuiani and what he was saying to the press,” Costello said.
As he began to say Cohen was also complaining about his lawyers not being paid by Trump at this point in 2018, Judge Juan Merchan sustained an objection from Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger. Merchan then cautioned Costello again to answer only the question he’s asked.
“Again, please just answer the question,” Merchan said.
“Did you ever put any pressure on Michael Cohen to do anything?” Bove asked.
“No,” Costello said.
“Did you ever pressure him to interact with Rudy Giuliani in a certain way?” Bove asked.
“No,” Costello said.
Trump attorney Emil Bove asked Robert Costello if he considered Michael Cohen his client.
“Absolutely. I had to treat him that way.”
Costello also said that his firm had sought payment from Cohen for his services.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger is asking about the initial contact with Michael Cohen and if Robert Costello’s partner reached out to Cohen.
Costello responds twice, “The email speaks for itself.”
the jury was dismissed during this bit.
cnn commentary:
Bob Costello engaging in behavior that caused Judge Juan Merchan to clear the courtroom is “shocking,” CNN chief legal correspondent Paula Reid said.
“The fact that Costello would conduct himself in a trial like this, potentially jeopardizing a case like this, I am actually surprised, but it validates the concerns that have been expressed by members of Trump’s defense teams” about why they didn’t want to call Costello to the stand, she explained.
“This is unbelievable that he would engage in this kind of conduct” to have the entire courtroom be cleared, Reid added.
Reid also noted that his behavior undermines everything the defense has tried to do for their client for the past week or so. and it’s unclear what kind of impact this is going to have on the case.
Reid also said that she personally has “dealt with (Costello) for a decade” and she is “pretty shocked” that he behaving this way on the stand. Despite having animus toward Michael Cohen and ill will toward judge, “the fact that he would engage in this kind of behavior in a criminal courtroom, in a historic case of this nature is truly shocking.”
An Audience of One.
I have yet to waver from my belief that the worst among these characters puts on a performance in order to curry favor with Trump.
To what end? It probably varies for each rogue, but they all seem to believe there’s power, position, prestige, or money in it for them, eventually.
And it sounds like it was quite a performance.
Yep. I wonder when Trump throws him under the bus whether he’ll come back for seconds or will he actually act surprised?
It very much seems like he was playing a proxy role, doing the whining and glaring and huffing that Trump has been wanting to do to the judge all along.
Yup but Trump fails to grasp that these things don’t work at a criminal trial. There is a not a Fox News poll at the end of this, 12 jurors are going to decide if he goes to prison.
This rant might make him feel better but it’s not helping the case.
from cnn update:
Robert Costello reviews an email string between his partner Jeff Citron and Michael Cohen. He is cc’ed on the chain.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks him if he was hoping to represent Cohen.
Costello responds, “I wasn’t hoping anything, it wasn’t my email.”
Costello says it arose from his partner’s longtime relationship with Cohen.
“I didn’t know Michael Cohen from a hole in the wall,” Costello says
Hoffinger asks, “So you weren’t hoping to represent Michael Cohen?”
“No, I wasn’t.”
Costello says he met with Cohen “because Jeff Citron made an arrangement with Michael Cohen, and he asked me to come along” because Citron was primarily a real estate lawyer, Costello says.
Hoffinger asks if it was a “high-profile” case for him?
“Probably, yes,” Costello responds.
Two jurors looked at one another when Robert Costello asked prosecutor Susan Hoffinger to “speak into the microphone, please.”
Hoffinger went on to ask if Robert Costello can be empathetic to someone who’s apartment has been raided given his experience as a defense lawyer.
Costello said, “Yes.”
per msnbc: the jury has been dismissed for the day. the judge has given further instruction to costello about his testimony.
rc: on to tomorrow. hopefully things can get tied up. i don’t believe mr costello was very helpful and it appears the jury views him a bit askance. i still can’t believe costello tried to say “strike that”. today has really tried merchan’s patience.
per cnn:
Before the judge calls it a day, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asks Robert Costello about his impression of the meeting with Michael Cohen at the Regency Hotel in 2018.
“You thought he was being a drama queen didn’t you?”
“No, I never met Michael Cohen before and he was putting on quite a show.”
Costello says Cohen explained to them that two nights earlier he was on the roof of the hotel and was going to jump off and kill himself “because he couldn’t handle the pressure of the ongoing criminal case coming his way.”
“Sure,” Hoffinger replies sarcastically.
“You just don’t like drama queens?” Hoffinger asks.
“I just didn’t know. I didn’t know the guy,” Costello says.
Judge Juan Merchan asks the attorneys to approach the bench.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said she has half an hour, possibly 45 minutes left in her cross-examination of Robert Costello.
Hoffinger also asked the judge to instruct Costello not to talk. The judge said he doesn’t generally give that instruction. Costello then walked out of the courtroom without looking at Trump.
Defense attorney Todd Blanche is asking for a dismissal of the charges.
Blanche is arguing that the prosecution did not prove their case against Trump.
Trump is staring at Blanche as he’s speaking. His body is turned almost around to watch Blanche
Remember: This is routine. It is typical practice that after the prosecution rests, a defendant’s attorneys will move to dismiss the case.
Trump attorney Emil Bove says the defense does not expect to call any witnesses after Robert Costello.
The judge notes that can change.
Bob Costello, a lawyer who advised Michael Cohen in 2018, testified under the prosecution’s cross-examination for about 15 minutes on Monday afternoon before court ended for the day. Here are the key points:
Costello said Cohen was suicidal: When the two lawyers met in April 2018, Cohen was “suicidal that day and acting very manic,” Costello testified.
“He was putting on quite a show and he explained to us, he told us that two nights before he was on the roof of the Regency Hotel and he was going to jump off and kill himself because he couldn’t handle the pressure of the ongoing criminal case coming his way,” Costello said.
Costello to resume Tuesday: Costello is set to return to the stand on Tuesday morning for more cross-examination. The defense said they will have re-direct after that but do not expect to call any further witnesses.
And they’ll keep doing it, despite the fact that they, quite literally, just finished watching, Michael Cohen spend 16 hours on the stand (and 3 years in jail) for, again quite literally, that exact same power, position, prestige and money.
The money? Cohen stated he stole money from Trump because he was angry about getting stiffed on his bonus. It also sounds like his lawyers weren’t getting paid by Trump.
Position? Is ‘under the bus’ a position?
Prestige?
Jesus Christ, these people are just dumb as rocks.
Even if it was a civil trial, he’s probably never been taken to court by someone with the resources of the government. He’s probably never been taken to court by someone with more money and time than him. This is probably the first time he’s been in the position that he’s put so many other people in. The only difference is that the other people, I think, back down first and we all know he’s not going to do that.
Unless I missed something, your info dump seems to go straight to the prosecution.
If Costello is a defense witness (?) wouldn’t the defense go first?
They’re already done with him.
Sure, but what did he say? What was the defense?
(paraphrasing) Cohen is a stupid poopyhead and a crazy person and you can’t trust him.
Chasing it down, it looks like it was fairly short. But, in summation, he seems to have said:
- Cohen told him that he didn’t have any information against Trump.
- Cohen said that he did everything on his own.
- Costello told Cohen that, if he actually had evidence against Trump, then his best legal recourse would be to work with the authorities.
Trump’s now-usual post-court rant.
We should get a game of bingo going for these rants.
“Nobody’s ever seen …”
“Witch hunt!”
“Conflicted judge!”
“All political!”
“It’s lawfare …”
“Biden’s fault.”
“[Commentator Name] says there’s no case.”
Etc.
Trump Bingo could be interesting.
I was reading the BBC recap for the day and that is a very unflattering file photo of Costello.