Donald Trump's defense in his hush money/falsified business records trial rested on Tuesday, May 21 after pro-Trump attorney Robert Costello finished his testimony and the former president decided not to testify. Final arguments in the trial are expected for May 28 after Memorial Day.
Costello was combative in court, clashing with Justice Juan Merchan. Trump's defense team used Costello as a witness in the hope of damaging the credibility of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, but according to the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, it was Costello's own credibility that was damaged by his testimony.
"At this trial," Pagliery explains, "the defense was hoping that Costello would portray Cohen — the case's key witness — as a desperate liar who'd been caught by the feds after independently putting together the hush money deal without Trump's express permission and is only now trying to pin it on his former boss. Instead, whatever alternate narrative Costello was trying to tell was eclipsed by his miserable performance on the stand Monday and Tuesday: first getting reprimanded by the judge for showing his utter contempt for the entire trial, then later by being forced to confront his own damning words written six years ago."
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Pagliery notes that Costello was cross examined by Susan Hoffinger, a prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s office. And she highlighted what Costello had to say in past emails.
"She started by directing the jury's attention to the way Costello flaunted his personal ties to Giuliani when he and his law partner, Jeff Citron, first met with Cohen at the New York Regency Hotel on April 17, 2018," the Daily Beast reporter explains. "When Costello asserted he didn't, Hoffinger pointed to an email Costello sent Cohen two days later in which he wrote, 'I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very, very useful to you'…. Hoffinger then pointed to another email in which Costello told his law partner that (former New York City Mayor Rudy) Giuliani's new spot at the White House made it 'all the more reason' for Cohen to hire their firm, thanks to a connection 'which I mentioned at our meeting.'"
Pagliery adds, "Costello wouldn't budge. But he was visibly annoyed. For an hour, Hoffinger turned Costello's overconfidence into a weakness."
The reporter points out that the more Hoffinger read Costello's emails, the worse she made him look.
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"One by one, Hoffinger read through emails showing what appeared to be a quiet campaign to pressure Cohen into remaining on the Trump team," Pagliery notes. "And with every pushback from Costello, the lawyer only lost more credibility — suffering the same fate he'd hoped for Cohen."
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Jose Pagliery's full Daily Beast article is available at this link (subscription required).