Just before former President Donald Trump's defense team rested in the Manhattan criminal hush money case, their key witness, attorney Robert Costello, endured a cross-examination that legal experts widely considered a complete disaster for Trump's case.
Costello, the former legal adviser to Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen, was brought up to testify that Cohen was lying about Trump's involvement in the scheme to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels, which the prosecution argues was effectively a criminal scheme to defraud voters in the 2016 election.
But Costello proceeded to cause chaos in the courtroom by antagonizing the judge on Monday, and then on Tuesday, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger swiftly hit him with a series of damning emails in which he admitted to be manipulating Cohen on behalf of Trump, throwing his own credibility into doubt.
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The whole thing probably left Trump in worse shape with the jury than before, some experts concluded.
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"Can’t wait to see how the CNN commentators are going to somehow spin Robert Costello’s testimony as devastating for the prosecution when it is an unmitigated disaster for the defense," wrote Ron Filipkowski, an attorney who previously worked as a GOP operative. "Almost malpractice to call this unethical clown as a witness."
"Costello couldn’t sound more like a cheap knockoff of a mob lawyer if he had written in the emails 'our friend in orange wishes to convey his desire to resolve the thing we discussed in the place that time,'" wrote national security lawyer Bradley Moss.
"Hoffinger shows the jury the 4/21 email telling Cohen he has 'friends in high places,' meaning of course the defendant," wrote Never Trump conservative legal commentator George Conway. "So stupid of the defense to put Costello on. It's a gift to the prosecution, which now gets to rehash Trump & Co.'s mobster-like behavior."
Former White House ethics czar and impeachment counsel Norm Eisen noted, "Several members of jury snicker as Costello tries to steamroll Hoffinger and she shuts him down over and over again."
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