A lawyer who clashed with Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen – and whom the judge overseeing the silence case reprimanded for disrespectful behavior on the witness stand – will resume his testimony on Tuesday as possibly the last witness of the defense in the first criminal trial of a former president.
New York State Judge Juan Merchan reprimanded Robert Costello, a veteran New York lawyer who argued with Cohen in 2018 to represent him, over his facial expressions and sarcastic comments on the witness stand in Manhattan on Monday. fair. Merchan was so outraged by Costello’s behavior that he asked the jury to leave and then ordered the courtroom to be emptied of journalists and the public before reprimanding Costello.
“I am warning you that your conduct is dismissive. If you try to face me one more time, I will remove you from the stand” and remove your statement from the record, Merchan said.
Costello was one of two witnesses the defense called Monday after prosecutors rested their case. The other was a paralegal working for Trump lawyer Todd Blanche, who testified about calls between Costello and Cohen in 2018.
Costello testified that Cohen told him that Trump had no knowledge of the secret $130,000 payment he made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Cohen testified in his four days on the witness stand that he lied to Costello because he didn’t trust him, in part because he also represented Rudy Giuliani, a close Trump ally.
Cohen and Costello have taken several public jabs at each other since then. “If they want to go after Donald Trump and have solid evidence, so be it. But Michael Cohen is far from solid evidence,” Costello told reporters after testifying before the grand jury in the case last year. “He’s not completely trustworthy,” Costello said at the time.
At the end of court on Monday, Trump lawyer Emil Bove told Merchan that the defense had no other witnesses after Costello, but that was subject to change. Asked before the trial began whether he would take the stand in his own defense, Trump said he “absolutely” would, but that response has softened in the weeks since, with Trump saying he would testify “if necessary.”
Cohen was the last witness called by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office and the prosecutors’ 20th witness overall. Under questioning by Blanche, Cohen acknowledged on Monday that he had defrauded Trump and his company of $30,000.
Asked if he “stole from the Trump Organization,” Cohen said, “Yes, sir.”
Under cross-examination, Cohen said he did it because he was “angry” that Trump reduced his annual bonus in 2016. “It was almost like self-help,” he said.
Despite the likely end of testimony on Tuesday, jurors will not hear closing arguments until May 28 due to conflicts with juror schedules and the Memorial Day holiday.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the Daniels payment.
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