Michael Cohen<\/a>, Trump\u2019s former fixer turned top prosecution witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe conclusion of Costello\u2019s testimony largely regurgitated discussion of his relationship with Cohen, who claimed that he was being pressured into playing ball as a criminal investigation loomed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Costello about his correspondence to Cohen after they had met in the wake of federal authorities raiding the former Trump lawyer\u2019s residence, and temporary home at a hotel, in April 2018. Cohen had said on direct that Costello touted his coziness with Rudy Giuliani, a close Trump ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result that relationship, Cohen said he worried that Costello would disclose things to Giuliani who, in turn, would tell Trump. Costello, who has rejected that there was any pressure, was asked about an email he wrote to Cohen that read: \u201cIf you really believe you are not being supported by your former boss, then you should make your position known.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou wrote that to him, right?\u201d Hoffinger questioned. Costello responded in the affirmative. Was he angry at Cohen? Upset? Costello said no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDid you believe that he was also playing President Trump, correct?\u201d Hoffinger pressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s correct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attorney Emil Bove questioned him shortly thereafter, referring to this email, and asked: \u201cWas that you pressuring Michael Cohen to do anything?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cNo, not at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDid you ever pressure Michael Cohen to do anything?\u201d Bove asked later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI did not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDid you ever have control over Michael Cohen?\u201d Costello grinned and replied: \u201cAbsolutely not\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second day of Costello\u2019s testimony lacked the fireworks from his early testimony on Monday, which sent Merchan\u2019s courtroom into near-chaos. At various points, Costello committed courtroom faux pas \u2013 quipping \u201cjeez\u201d at one point and telling the stenographer to \u201cstrike\u201d something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merchan sent jurors out of the room and, after warning Costello not to do this, snapped: \u201cAre you staring me down right now?\u201d and ordered officers to clear the courtroom. An attorney for the press tried to address Merchan, who did not allow him to do so, even though it is common practice for judges to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the law, courtrooms are presumed public and open; Merchan offered circular reasoning for limiting access in an incredibly high-profile criminal case. He said that difficulty in booting reporters from the proceeding was why he had to boot them in the first place, according to a court transcript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe fact that I had to clear the courtroom and that the court officers, including the captain, had great difficulty clearing the courtroom, and that there was argument back and forth between the press and including counsel for the press, goes to why I had to clear the courtroom in the first place,\u201d Merchan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It remains possible that something else will happen to upset Merchan. While heading back into court this afternoon for a conference on jury instructions, Trump hinted that he might violate the gag order yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not allowed to say what I\u2019d like to really say. You\u2019d be very impressed, but I\u2019m gagged. So why would I take the chance?\u201d Trump said, quickly shifting into pot-stirring territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe do want to defend our constitution,\u201d Trump said, according to a pooler, \u201cso at some point, maybe I will take the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense rests after calling two witnesses, and Donald Trump Jr attacks a question about why his father didn\u2019t take the stand Donald Trump\u2019s criminal hush-money trial inched toward its final stretch on Tuesday with a fizzle, not a bang. The former president\u2019s defense rested after calling two witnesses, and Trump \u2013 despite previously saying that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1269,4740,23901,1906,1230],"class_list":["post-27622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-failure","tag-hush-money","tag-testimony","tag-trial","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27624,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27622\/revisions\/27624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}