'The defense has nothing': Ex-Michael Cohen attorney buries Robert Costello's testimony
Former Michael Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis revealed some new details about lawyer Robert Costello, whom Cohen was at one point considering retaining as an attorney.
The Trump hush money trial ended abruptly on Monday after Costello, a defense witness, angered the judge with his behavior. Tuesday didn't start off much better, as Costello was confronted by prosecutors who grilled him over past emails where he seemed to be attempting to manipulate Cohen and to get him to not flip against his one-time boss, who currently stands accused of falsifying business records while attempting to conceal a hush money payment for an alleged affair. He has pleaded not guilty.
As the testimony finished, Davis listed a number of facts about Costello dating from his attempt to dissuade a grand jury from indicting Trump last year.
"Fact one, [Costello] asked to testify to the grand jury after Michael was finished, very unusual," said Davis. "After he testified, the grand jury told the prosecutors, and I guess I'm going to just tell you what the prosecutor's reaction was rather than disclosing what they said. The prosecutors were not interested in hearing from Michael to rebut. That's how little weight was given to Mr. Costello, by the grand jury."
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The second fact, he said, is that Costello "sent a bill for services without an engagement letter. Let me repeat that," Davis paused. "He sent a bill with lots of time recorded without having been hired. He said he was hired, but Michael never hired him. That's number two."
Finally, Davis wanted to know why Costello ended up as a witness for the defense.
"Because the defense has nothing to counter the facts that the jury will be looking at in the record, in the evidence, that has nothing to do with Michael Cohen," Davis explained. "The facts are undisputed that Donald Trump had a political motive to pay off Stormy Daniels, which came from other witnesses, [David] Pecker and Hope Hicks."
He also said that the facts show "Trump knew these were reimbursements for advances including Stormy Daniels. Not legal fees. So, Trump lied about legal fees, and the Weisselberg document that does the math, 420 divided by 12 equals $35,000 checks, proved that Michael Cohen was reimbursed, not paid for legal fees. That's the fraud. The case has been made without Michael Cohen being believed."
See the full interview below or at the link here.
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