#Steinglass moves to #MichaelCohen’s guilty plea to federal crimes. When #Hoffinger questioned Cohen about the pleas, she asked if he’d committed #crimes at Trump’s behest. Cohen said that he had.
Steinglass reads portions of that testimony aloud, before pivoting to #Trump’s tweets blasting Cohen right after he pleaded guilty.
Steinglass argues the tweets were a message to other witnesses. “Cooperate, & you will face the wrath of Donald Trump.”
Prosecutor Susan #Hoffinger reminds the judge that before the trial began, he himself precluded the jury from hearing anything about potential punishments for #Trump. “Mr. Blanche was certainly on notice that this was an improper argument,” Hoffinger says.
Hoffinger also argues that the defense misstated the #law when it came to how #legal retainer agreements work in NY. #Blanche argues that he is willing to litigate the issue further this evening.
#Hoffinger 🤜🏻 🗡️ #Castello
Ben Meiselas reports on how Donald Trump’s final witness collapsed on the stand under a pitch-perfect cross-examination by Manhattan DA Susan Hoffinger.
#Hoffinger, in a brief, final series of questions & answers, again confirms that #RobertCostello was never officially hired as #MichaelCohen’s lawyer. Costello steps down from the witness stand.
Justice #Merchan turns to the #jury & explains the upcoming schedule. Closing arguments will take a day & his instructions to them afterward will take at least an hour.
Court will be adjourned, for jurors, until a week from today.
#Hoffinger’s final question is an accusation: whether #RobertCostello’s testimony to Congress was meant to #intimidate #MichaelCohen as he testified in this trial. Costello asked her to repeat the question & then denied the accusation. “No,” he said. “Ridiculous.”
#Trump atty #Bove, is on redirect. Costello testifies that Cohen said in April 2018 that he would be “eternally grateful” for the help & guidance that Costello had given him in those difficult days.
#RobertCostello answers “no” when asked if he has animosity toward #MichaelCohen 😂. #Hoffinger points out that Costello went to Washington last week to testify before Congress about Cohen, & made aggressive comments about him. Costello says he didn’t know his comments would be reported in the press [seriously?].
#RobertCostello has asked several times to offer additional context, & Susan #Hoffinger has made clear she does not want that context, cutting him off & moving to her next question. In doing so, Hoffinger shows that she believes she has the jury on her side after the way Costello treated her & the court yesterday.
#Trump atty, Emil #Bove just insisted there was a “pending question” from Hoffinger when there wasn’t, forcing Justice #Merchan to once again correct him.
#Hoffinger asks #RobertCostello if an email in which he offers to provide a “back channel” between #Trump & #MichaelCohen “speaks for itself” [Costello used the phrase while #mansplaining to her yesterday].
Costello says it does not because there was more context, & offers to provide that context.
“That’s all right,” Hoffinger says, moving on to her next question. 😊
#misogyny #criminal #law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#RobertCostello’s attitude is already *brusque* under cross-examination from #Hoffinger.
Hoffinger asks Costello about his relationship w/ #RudyGiuliani.
Costello confirms that he is close to #Giuliani & has known him for 50 yrs. Costello & his law firm recently sued Giuliani for unpaid legal bills.
👀 Hoffinger reads an email Costello sent to #MichaelCohen in which he described his relationship w/Giuliani as potentially being “very useful to you.”
#SebastianGorka, Trump’s fmr White House *adviser*, walks in w/ a silver case bearing what appears to be a presidential seal.
With his legal team & Secret Service agents in the mix, #Trump’s group numbers more than two dozen. #WitnessIntimidation #JuryTampering
#RobertCostello is on the stand.
Justice Merchan reminds him that he’s under oath.
#Hoffinger, one of the prosecution’s leaders, is expected to continue her cross-examination of Costello.
The judge tells the jurors that we will stop for the day, & begins to excuse them.
Susan #Hoffinger asks that #RobertCostello be reminded that he is not meant to interact w/either party while still on the stand. But Justice #Merchan says he doesn’t normally give that instruction & allows Costello to step down. Hoffinger says she has ~45 mins of questions left for Costello.
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney
#RobertCostello attacks #Hoffinger as she questions him.
He keeps correcting her tiny misstatements, like when she described him as a fmr “chief” of a criminal division rather than a “deputy chief”.
He took issue w/her use of the term “raid” when she referred to the FBI executing a search warrant against #MichaelCohen.
He just instructed her to talk into the microphone.
Note: There are 5 women on the jury.
#Hoffinger shows #RobertCostello an email he sent to his own son. The email says “I will be on the team,” & it quotes #MichaelCohen as saying that he would be “eternally grateful” to have him.
Costello told his son that he did not know when the announcement would be made. His son responded: "Wow. That’s big news. Congrats Dad. I hope this leads to a lot of good things coming your way.”
[oops]
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #MobTactics
#RobertCostello pauses before he answers even the simplest questions from prosecutor #Hoffinger. She asks if #MichaelCohen, as the president’s lawyer, would have been a high-profile client for him. “Would it be a big win for you & your firm?” Hoffinger asks. “I would say no,” Costello responds. Hoffinger asks Costello if he would announce Cohen as a client on his website. Costello says he’s not sure what the firm would do.
Susan #Hoffinger is a former defense lawyer & therefore is comfortable w/ cross-examination [unlike #Blanche]. She grills #RobertCostello about what he told #MichaelCohen as he was seeking to provide #legal advice. She says that Costello extolled his famous clients in an email to Cohen.
Costello insists that it was his partner, Jeff Citron, who had the relationship w/Cohen, & he met w/him because his partner made the arrangement. “It was Jeff Citron’s client, not mine,” he says.
Prosecutor #Hoffinger is on cross-examination #RobertCostello for the prosecution.
Hoffinger gets under Costello’s skin quickly. “The email speaks for itself,” he keeps saying when asked about an email exchange between his law partner & Cohen.
Costello is now scolding Hoffinger for getting his past title wrong. (This guy is a shit show)
#criminal #law #Trump #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference #HushMoney #MobTactics
#RobertCostello’s is showing his obvious dislike of #MichaelCohen.
He testifies that w/respect to #StormyDaniels, Cohen said “numerous times” that #Trump “knew nothing about those payments, that he did this on his own.”
Prosecutor #Hoffinger objects to many of Emil #Bove's questions, often being sustained by #Merchan.
Costello is ignoring the judge’s rulings, so Justice Merchan warned him directly to wait for a ruling before answering.
Prosecutor Susan #Hoffinger asks about the effect #MichaelCohen’s involvement w/ #Trump & this case has had on him.
“My entire life has been turned upside down,” Cohen says.
Cohen is saying he lost his #law license as a result, & that he blames Trump in part for that.
Hoffinger's redirect of Cohen is done.
#Blanche, the defense lawyer, is questioning Cohen again, & is drilling down on Cohen’s #guilty pleas to #crimes that were UNRELATED to Trump.
#Hoffinger returns to what prosecutors say are #crimes. She asks if the $420k that #MichaelCohen received in 2017 — the reimbursement for the #HushMoney, additional money to cover taxes, a reimbursement for the payment to the tech company, RedFinch, & a bonus — had anything to do w/ #legal services.
Cohen: “No.”
Hoffinger emphasizes that the financial documents connected to the payments were false, because they said the payments were in exchange for legal services.
“Are you actually on trial here in this case?” #Hoffinger asks #MichaelCohen. “No,” he says. Through her questions, Hoffinger makes an obvious point — that the defense sought to make Cohen look like a #criminal. But ultimately, the jurors aren’t here to judge Cohen’s criminality. They are here to judge #Trump.
#law #TrumpTrial #CatchAndKill #conspiracy #ElectionInterference
