//

(Photo by Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Donald Trump will not be testifying at his false business records case in New York this week. His lawyers prevailed upon him not to take the stand and subject himself to questioning under oath about the putative sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels in 2006; the negotiation to cover up the alleged dalliance in 2016 via a $130,000 hush money payment; and the cover up of the coverup by which Michael Cohen was reimbursed for fronting the cash.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-top-300x250" ); });

Barred from testifying, Trump persuaded his lawyers to do the next stupidest thing: they put Michael Cohen’s former attorney Robert Costello on the witness stand instead.

Sponsored Why Do AI And Legal Professionals Make The Perfect Partnership? For many legal departments, generative AI is the technology they’ve been waiting for.  From THOMSON REUTERS  

Costello is a recurring character in Trumpland, who served at SDNY with Rudy Giuliani and later worked with Giuliani and Steve Bannon to push out Hunter Biden’s “laptop.” He first came to public attention during the Mueller investigation in 2018 as the possible vector of a pardon dangle from Trump to keep Cohen from flipping. That allegation was never proven, but when Cohen pled, he waived attorney-client privilege, releasing correspondence in which presented himself, not as a counselor prepared to negotiate with the special counsel, but as a conduit to the White House.

“I am sure you saw the news that Rudy is joining the Trump legal team,” he emailed Cohen on April 19, 2018. “I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very useful for you.”

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-middle-300x250" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-storycontent-440x100" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-in-story-youtube-1x1" ); });

“I just spoke to Rudy Giuliani and told him I was on your team. Rudy was thrilled and said this could not be a better situation for the President or you,” he wrote on April 23, adding that, “He asked me to tell you that he knows how tough this is on you and your family and he will make sure to tell the President. He said thank you for opening this back channel of communication and asked me to keep in touch. I told him I would after speaking to you further.”

It’s not clear why Trump and his lawyers thought Costello would be a good witness for a defense which rests on the theory that Cohen was a lone wolf, paying off Daniels on his own, and then conning the Trump Org out of money unrelated to the payment. Particularly since those lawyers sent Costello to address the grand jury and dirty up Cohen as a pre-indictment rebuttal witness, and the grand jury still issued the indictment.

Sponsored Sponsored Diving Into Generative AI: A Practical Guide For Law Firms Starting From Scratch NetDocuments’ Michelle Spencer on where to start, what to ask, and considerations for implementing generative AI tools in your organization. From Ethan Beberness   Sponsored Why Do AI And Legal Professionals Make The Perfect Partnership? For many legal departments, generative AI is the technology they’ve been waiting for.  From THOMSON REUTERS   Sponsored Law Firms Now Have A Choice In Their Document Comparison Software Six months on since its launch, over 200 firms worldwide are now using Draftable Legal for accurate and reliable document comparison, including UK Top 50… From Draftable   Sponsored From AI To KPI: The Law Department Tech Trends Of 2024 What technology trends are in store for large corporate law departments? Join us for this CLE-eligible webinar to find out! From iManage and Above The Law  

But they probably didn’t expect it to go this badly.

Here’s *that* exchange between Justice Merchan and Robert Costello earlier today:

JUSTICE MERCHAN to ROBERT COSTELLO: “Are you staring me down right now?…I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous…” pic.twitter.com/lNyfgRDxI5

— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) May 21, 2024

On the first day of his testimony, Costello was so obstreperous and disrespectful that Justice Juan Merchan actually cleared the courtroom and threatened to strike his testimony entirely if his contemptuous behavior continued. After exclaiming “Jeez” in protest of a sustained objection, Costello purported to strike his own comments from the record.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-bottom-300x250" ); });

“I’m the only one that can strike testimony in the courtroom,” the judge seethed, “And if you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side eye and you don’t roll your eyes.”

With the jury back, Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove was able to get Costello to call Cohen a liar — something which was probably not news to anyone in the courtroom.

Sponsored Sponsored From AI To KPI: The Law Department Tech Trends Of 2024 What technology trends are in store for large corporate law departments? Join us for this CLE-eligible webinar to find out! From iManage and Above The Law   Sponsored Gain An Instant Understanding Of New Complaints With LexisNexis Snapshot AI-powered complaint summaries to help you spot new lawsuits, new challenges, and new business. From Ethan Beberness  

Then today, Costello managed the rare feat of making himself look even sleazier and less honest than Cohen. He insisted that he’d simply been doing Cohen a favor, only to be confronted by an email from his son saying “Wow. That’s big news. Congrats Dad. I hope this leads to a lot of good things coming your way.”

He huffed that he had always represented Cohen’s interests alone, only to have a message to his law partner Jeffrey Citron stuck under his nose.

“Tune into CNN and see how they are playing this up. Cohen has to know this and he continues to slow play us and the President,” he wrote. “I am in a golf tournament tomorrow early and again on Sunday. What would you say to this asshole? He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet.”

The day ended with Hoffinger getting Costello to admit that he testified before Congress last week about this very case and called Cohen a liar. But, he insisted, that was certainly not an attempt to intimidate the witness or influence the case.

Perish the very thought!

MAGA Lawyer Gets Dismantled by His Own Damning Trump Emails [Daily Beast]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.

Topics

Courts, Donald Trump, Juan Merchan, Michael Cohen, Robert Costello