by Jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial have been shown a series of damning emails that show Rudy Giuliani-linked attorney Robert Costello pressuring Michael Cohen to stay loyal to the former president while the one-time “fixer” was under federal investigation .
In April 2018, the FBI raided Cohen’s office and home and seized his cell phones and documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
After the raid, Mr Costello suggested that Cohen should retain him as a lawyer, in what Cohen previously claimed was part of a “pressure campaign” to keep him close to Mr Trump and prevent him from “flow” against it.
On Tuesday, Mr Costello returned to the stand as Mr Trump’s final defense witness – and the final witness in the historic trial – just hours after he was almost thrown from the witness stand entirely for making eye contact with the judge .
Under cross-examination from the prosecution, Mr Costello was in front of an email in which he asked Cohen to “get on the same page” and reminded him that he has “friends in high places”.
In May 2018, Mr. Costello sent an email to his party saying: “Our issue is getting Cohen on the right page without making it seem like we’re following instructions from Giuliani or the President.”
A month later on June 22, 2018 – two months before Cohen reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors – Mr. Costello sent an email to a partner to complain that Cohen “continues to play slow with us and the president. “
“Is he completely a nut?” Mr. Costello wrote. “What should I say to this ******? He is playing with the most powerful man in the world.”
“That email certainly speaks for itself, doesn’t it, Mr. Costello?” asked Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger.
“Yes, it does,” replied Mr. Costello.
Mr Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records for a series of invoices and checks to Cohen in 2017 that reimbursed him for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors alleged that Mr Trump illegally covered up potentially politically damaging information about his affairs to boost his chances of victory.
He has pleaded not guilty and denies having sex with Ms Daniels.
Cohen – who was President Trump’s personal attorney at the time during the investigation – previous testimony and emails shown in court revealed an apparent attempt by Mr. Costello to open a “back channel” of communication between him, through Mr. Giuliani, for Mr. Trump.
In his testimony last week, Cohen described Mr. Costello’s “outrageous” attempts to force him into his service.
“This is part of the pressure campaign, ‘everyone is lying to you, that you are still respected, the president still supports you, don’t talk, don’t listen to what the journalists or anyone is saying, and stay in the hit ,’” Cohen said last week. “‘Don’t flip, don’t cooperate.'”
Cohen did not trust him, he said, but remained “loyal to Mr. Trump.”
After conversations with his family, and what he described as a sense of obligation to his wife and children and “to the country,” Cohen said he came to a conclusion: “I decided I would no longer lie to President Trump. .”
He eventually pleaded guilty in August 2018 to campaign finance violations, tax evasion, and lying to Congress.
On the stand, Mr. Costello repeatedly denied pressuring Cohen to do anything, and maintained that he only treated him as a client with his interests in mind and was not seeking an opportunity to represent him. Cohen did not sign a retainer agreement and did not consider Mr. Costello an attorney.
Mr. Costello claimed that he was just trying to “get everybody on the same page because Cohen was complaining incessantly, in vain, that Giuliani was making statements in the press that Cohen didn’t agree with.”
“I was encouraging Michael Cohen … to express any of his complaints, so I could take them to Giuliani and work them out whatever they were,” he said.
He questioned whether he had agreed to testify to Congress to “intimidate” a “ridiculous” Cohen.
During a Republican-led House committee hearing last week, Mr. Costello called Cohen “absolutely manic.”
“He was putting on quite a show,” Mr Costello said on Monday, describing an initial meeting with Cohen in 2018. “He explained to us that two nights before, he had been on the roof of the Regency hotel and that he was going. to jump off and kill himself.”
On Monday, moments after Mr. Costello took the stand, New York Judge Juan Merchan scolded the attorney for rolling his eyes, saying “ridiculous” and “jeez” and sighing heavily during protests. in his testimony.
“You don’t like my controls? You don’t say ‘jeez’,” he said. “You don’t roll your eyes. Do you understand that?”
As he prepared to bring the jury back in, he fired at Mr Costello one last time: “Are you staring me down right now? Clean the courtroom.”
With only Mr Trump’s lawyers and entourage in the courtroom, the judge warned that Mr Costello’s behavior could land him in contempt of court.
“If you try to look down on me again, I’ll knock you off the stand,” he said.
The defense stands its case — and Trump won’t testify
Mr Costello was the second – and final – witness called by the former president’s defense team.
After 19 witnesses came forward over the past six weeks, Manhattan prosecutors rested their case on Monday.
Defense attorneys called only two witnesses, including Mr. Costello, and closed their case Tuesday morning.
Mr. Trump – who has repeatedly suggested he would take the stand in his defense, and has falsely claimed that the trial gag order prevents him from doing so – failed to testify.
Closing arguments from both parties will begin on May 28.
Judge Merchan will then provide instructions to the jury before deliberations begin.
A decision could be reached as early as May 29.
In one of his press conferences from the hallway outside the courtroom on Tuesday, steps away from the men’s bathroom, Mr. Trump complained about the trial taking from his campaign schedule.
“I want to be out campaigning right now. But again, I will be here for almost five weeks in court,” he said. “They have no case. There is no crime. … It’s a kangaroo court. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
