A key witness for former President Donald Trump in his criminal hush money trial Monday stuck out his tongue and blew raspberries when faced with rulings from the judge overseeing the case, according to a new report.
"After more sustained objections, Costello blows raspberries," Newsweek reported Monday. "Merchan calls for a break, asks jury to step out. He tells Costello, firmly, to remain seated."
Merchan then chastised Costello for actions that reportedly included rolling his eyes and muttering "Jeez!"
"I'd like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom," Merchan reportedly said. "If you don't like my ruling, you don't give me side eye or roll your eyes."
Costello appeared on the witness stand in Trump's fifth week in the New York City courtroom where he stands accused of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels, whom District Attorney Alvin Bragg contends was paid $130,000 through Cohen to keep quiet.
Former President Donald Trump engaged in one of his longest angry post-trial rants Monday after a dramatic day in court that saw his defense's witness spur chaos in the courtroom.
Trump appeared enraged that Robert Costello, the one-time legal adviser to Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, faced repercussions for antagonizing Justice Juan Merchan by rolling his eyes and muttering in the witness's box.
"You saw what we saw," said Trump. "It was an incredible — I've never seen anything like it in my life."
Trump proceeded to call the New York City criminal court judge "a tyrant."
"We have an acting judge, an appointed judge by Democrats, by the club, and they're keeping narratives, this is their fourth week," Trump said. "Soon will be our fifth week."
Trump then proceeded to do what he has done many of the previous days of trial, and read off quotes from people that he claims exonerate him — in this case including some from CNN legal analyst Elie Honig.
The prosecution has now rested in the case, following several days of testimony by Cohen, who has asserted Trump was directing the illegal scheme to disguise payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels as legal fees.
Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records and denies an affair between himself and Daniels.
The prosecution argues the alleged scheme was effectively election interference as it concealed information from voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Some other dramatic moments occurred on cross-examination of Cohen, where Trump attorney Todd Blanche got Cohen to admit to having stolen $30,000 from the Trump Organization.
New York criminal court Justice Juan Merchan's chaos-spurring decision to clear his courtroom so he could chastise an eye-rolling defense witness almost immediately triggered former President Donald Trump's MAGA supporters.
Former TrumpWhite House senior advisor Stephen Miller took to X Monday afternoon to bemoan the plight of the former President and to claim Merchan's order was proof of corruption.
"Biden Democrats are trying so hard to rig this trial," Miller wrote. "And rig this election."
Reports from inside the courtroom show Robert Costello was seen rolling his eyes and muttering about Merchan's rulings.
"If you don't like my ruling, you don't say 'Jeez!'" Merchan reportedly told Costello. "If you don't like my ruling, you don't give my side eye or roll your eyes."
The former president's son Eric Trump replied that there had been unforgivable behavior in court — from Merchan.
"The judge's treatment of Bob Costello is truly disgraceful - he will not allow him to tell his story - the same story he told Congress - as he knows it will be devastating and end this sham trial," Trump tweeted. "This is not justice!"
Former Trump adviser Steve Cortes also called out the decision to strike down on Costello, posting: "Democrat judge Juan Merchan is melting down on the stand as this show trial falls apart."
"Judge Merchan is sustaining the prosecutions objections before question is fully asked," tweeted former federal prosecutor Brett Holman. "It’s so bad the witness (Costello) blurts out 'Jeez.'
"The contrast of how much Judge Merchan let in during Stormy’s and Cohen’s testimony to the handcuffing he is doing to the defense is unreal."
Legal and political analysts agreed that the meltdown sparked by a witness called by Donald Trump's defense team Monday could not have left a good impression with the jury.
Costello began complaining on the microphone with each ruling by the judge. "Jeez" and "This is ridiculous" were some of the things he said while the jury was still seated, all while rolling his eyes.
At one point, Costello even said something should be stricken from the record. That was the last straw as Judge Juan Merchan told the jury to step out.
While being admonished Costello, according to Merchan, delivered a "side-eye." At that point, the judge demanded the courtroom be cleared.
"Although the dressing down of Costello took place outside of earshot of the jury, they witnessed firsthand Costello’s demeanor and petulance and heard firsthand his quips and remarks from the witness stand," she wrote on X. "Perhaps Costello just reinforced to the jury why Cohen didn’t want to keep Costello as his lawyer…Costello is pandering for an audience of one: Trump."
Host Nicolle Wallace called the encounter "theatrical" and "Trumpian." She asked the political and legal analysts on her show what impact it could have on the jury.
Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann said that he's brought lawyers to testify before and that most are very cautious and "ethical."
"This is the antithesis of that," said Weissmann of Costello.
He noted that Costello and Cohen had an attorney/client privilege relationship, but ultimately, Cohen decided not to hire him.
"His behavior in the courtroom, let's just say, is not consonant with somebody who has obligations to that client or prospective client and isn't coming off as dispassionate," he assessed.
Donny Deutsch, a longtime friend of Cohen's, noted that it was just a week ago that people were fearful that the ex-Trump "fixer" was going to be "glib" while testifying. Instead, he spent 25 hours on the stand and nothing like that unfolded.
"This guy is on the stand for a half hour!" he said of Costello. "So, that tells you something. And, Andrew, obviously, you know this infinitely better than any of us. That has to play on a jury. When you see a judge behaving that way, it destroys the credibility of that witness. He might as well say, 'Don't believe this guy.'"
"Disrespecting a judge as a witness, not — it's just not a good thing. ... Right now is that's going to feed into the cross," said Weissmann.
New York Times reporter Susanne Craig noted that all of this comes after Cohen managed to keep his cool for four days.
Weissmann said it adds to Cohen's credibility.
"You put this together with Trump closing his eyes, and if I'm a juror, I kind of go, this side doesn't take it seriously," Deutsch said. "This side thinks they're above it. This side thinks they don't have to be here."
The political analyst confessed that he doesn't know juries, but he knows focus groups, and it doesn't bode well for the defendant.
An extremely damning piece of evidence was submitted to the jury in former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial last week, but it was missed by the media amid a swell of dramatic courtroom moments, Michael Cohen's former attorney Lanny Davis argued Monday.
Davis, in an editorial for RealClear Politics, argued reporters covering the Manhattan criminal court trial missed a crucial moment Thursday as Trump's attorney Todd Blanche shouted "You lied!" at the former fixer.
"It was a moment that received breathless attention from the media," wrote Davis — referring to the moment when Cohen misremembered the exact substance of a call he made to Trump's bodyguard eight years ago.
"Missed in the hype by talking heads on cable of this dramatic 'Perry Mason moment' was the fact that the Trump lawyer’s melodramatic shout was not evidence to be considered by the jury. Just a lawyer shouting. Also missed was reporting on the most crucial document in the entire trial – the Weisselberg Document, which has been introduced into evidence and will be studied by the jury."
That document, argued Davis, provides clear evidence of Trump's guilt that doesn't require voters to believe Cohen is trustworthy.
"In Allen Weisselberg’s own handwriting, a memo shows that a total of $210,000 was to be reimbursed to Michael Cohen for money owed to him by Donald Trump, including the $130,000 in hush money Cohen paid to Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf because he was worried her revelations would harm his campaign," wrote Davis. "That total $210,000 was then doubled by Weisselberg on the document, equaling $420,000 ... then Weisselberg, a former executive in the Trump Organization, does the elementary school math to arrive at Trump’s monthly installment payments over a year to repay Cohen – $420,000/12 equals $35,000 per month, the amount of the checks almost all of which Trump wrote to Cohen each month in 2017 while a sitting president from his personal checking account."
Given the simple math of these payments, argued Davis, "There is no other reasonable conclusion, I respectfully suggest, the jury can draw other than that these were reimbursement payments by Trump, not legal fees; and therefore, he lied when he repeatedly publicly stated, as recently as last week, that they were legal fees, not reimbursements."
Ironically, the phone call that Trump supporters were treating as a large moment discrediting Cohen now appears instead to bolster him, as the prosecution — over the attempts of the defense to stop it — produced photographic evidence partially backing up Cohen's account that Trump was present around when the call happened.
Former President Donald Trump's lead attorney asked on Monday that New York Justice Juan Merchan dismiss the criminal hush money case against the former president by pointing the finger at former fixer Michael Cohen, reports from the courtroom show.
Todd Blanche's motion to dismiss was based on three main points linked to a lack of evidence and what he called Cohen's lack of credibility, according to Lawfare's Anna Bower.
"The is no way that the court should let this case go to the jury relying on Mr Cohen's testimony," Blanche said. "Without Mr. Cohen, there is no case."
Blanche first contended there was no evidence the business records in question were false, arguing Trump's attorney Michael Cohen did render legal services as the records say.
Secondly, Blanch argued there was no evidence of intent to defraud in the filings; and finally, that there was no evidence that the arrangement raised campaign finance law violation concerns, thus no evidence of a cover-up.
The prosecution's case included testimony from multiple witnesses with supporting documents they say prove Trump was embroiled in a scheme to falsify business records to hide hush money payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Merchan appeared skeptical of Blanche's argument as he echoed the attorney's words back to him, according to reporter Adam Klasfeld.
"Blanche also asks for a directed verdict because Michael Cohen's testimony isn't credible," Klasfeld reported. "Justice Merchan skeptically repeats that Blanche wants him to find Cohen's testimony not credible 'as a matter of law.'"
All of this comes after a dramatic day of testimony in which Trump's team called to the stand Robert Costello, a former legal adviser to Cohen, who proceeded to show such a breach of decorum that Merchan cleared the courtroom for a period of time before allowing the testimony to resume — a step that stunned observers.
Michael Cohen's former attorney Robert Costello's behavior in the courtroom was "unbelievable" and "truly shocking," CNN legal analyst Paula Reid said on Monday.
Justice Juan Merchan took the extreme measure Monday of clearing the courtroom so that he could chastise the defense witness for his behavior on the stand, spurring anchor Jake Tapper to ask Reid, "Have you ever seen anything like this?"
"No, this is unbelievable," said Reid. "I know Bob Costello quite well. I've talked to him for about a decade. The fact that he would allow this happen on the stand, it suggests in many ways that he is probably posturing for the defendant."
Reid argued Trump had likely demanded Costello testify despite warnings from his own attorneys.
"They said this is not a good idea, do not put Costello on the stand," said Reid. "He overrode them because he loved Costello's performance in Congress last week where he attacked not only Bob Costello [sic], but also this case. And the judge."
Tapper asked Reid to discuss Costello's background as an attorney and what it meant that he could be heard on the microphone saying, "Jeez" and rolling his eyes.
"He knows how important it is more than the Average Joe on the street to show respect and deference to a judge's rulings ... for him to do that, that's knowing hostility," Tapper said. "I mean, that is knowing animosity towards a judge's ruling."
"This is unbelievable that he would engage in this kind of conduct, force the entire courtroom to be cleared," said Reid.
"This is so over the top, undermining everything the defense has tried to do for their client over the past week or so. It's unclear what impact this is going to have on the case itself, but this is exactly why certain members of the defense team did not want to call him. But again, I've dealt with him for a decade. I am pretty shocked that this is the way that he's behaving on the stand. Look, he has animus towards Michael Cohen, no doubt. He also has some ill will towards the judge. But the fact that he would engage in this kind of behavior if you're in a criminal courtroom and the historic case of this nature is truly shocking."
Judge Juan Merchan cleared his courtroom on Monday as a defense witness' behavior sent Donald Trump's hush money trial into chaos.
The former attorney of the prosecution's star witness Michael Cohen was one of the first up to answer questions from the defense team. Trump is on trial for falsifying business records to cover up a hush money deal for an alleged affair.
Calling the witness, Robert Costello, caused protest as prosecutors objected and demanded a sidebar conversation with the judge
"Mr Costello, I'd like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom," Merchan began. "As a witness on the stand, if you don't like my ruling, you don't say jeez, and you don't say strike it, because I'm the only one who can do that. You don't give me side eye or roll your eyes."
Cohen testified last week that he spoke to Trump's security guard, Keith Schiller, on Oct. 24 about the status of the hush money payment to actress and director Stormy Daniels and that Schiller put Trump on the line.
But in cross-examination, Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, questioned whether that was the truth — and so far as to exclaim that Cohen was a "liar" in court.
To confirm that Cohen could have spoken to Trump because Schiller and Trump were together on Oct. 24, the prosecutors asked to admit a C-SPAN video showing the two together. Judge Juan Merchan rejected the admission because the C-SPAN witness who had previously come before the court had not spoken directly about that video.
So the prosecution pushed to bring him back. Experts called the revelation of the video, which came during Cohen's cross-examination, "huge."
So, prosecutors asked that he be permitted to return to authenticate the evidence.
Trump's lawyers objected to bringing back the C-SPAN witness, saying, "That's not the way a trial is supposed to work!"
Prosecutors explained that they didn't anticipate Trump's lawyers calling Cohen a liar about the phone call details, and that they now must provide evidence that the testimony is plausible.
Blanche complained, "This is the fifth or sixth time they've run out of witnesses," stating that the prosecution had been "ready to go" — meaning they were set to rest their case.
"That's just wrong," said prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, saying they had expected to rest after Cohen had finished his testimony.
After a short recess, prosecutors said the C-SPAN employee can be in court at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
During an appearance on MSNBC, Cevallos theorized about reasons why Blanche hasn't been objecting to what he says are leading questions being posed by prosecutors.
In essence, Cevallos believes that Trump's lawyers do not want to clutter the trial with objections that they think will make them look "ticky-tacky" and "petty."
That said, he believed that Trump's lawyers may nonetheless have been better served by being more aggressive when it comes to clamping down on leading questions from prosecutors.
"I think leading questions in this context are so devastating. It's why you're not allowed to use them with your own witness," he said. "I cannot overstate how devastating leading questions are because the attorney is basically testifying. And at the end of that testimony, he's asking the witness to rubber stamp it yes or no. So because they're so powerful, that's why you can't use them with your own witness, and the prosecution has been able to ask leading questions on critical issues."
The attorney then explained that a leading question is one that is worded in such a way that the questioner's desired answer is itself contained within the question.
"The lawyer makes a statement the way the lawyer wants to make a statement and then gets the witness to say yes or no," he said.
He then explained how Blanche had botched one of his own leading questions to Cohen, when he asked Cohen whether "your journey has been to attack Trump daily?"
Cohen, himself a one-time lawyer, seized on the inclusion of the word "journey" and replied, "No, my journey is to tell the truth," which was decidedly not the answer that Blanche was seeking.
"Look what happened with the addition of one word," said Cevallos.
Michael Cohen acknowledged on the stand Monday that he stole about $30,000 from his one-time employer, the Trump Organization.
Cohen is currently testifying about his former boss, former President Donald Trump, who is on trial in Manhattan after being charged with creating false business records to cover up a hush money scheme. He has pleaded not guilty.
As Cohen explained during his testimony, Trump had an outstanding bill of $50,000 from a tech company named Red Finch that he had initially dodged paying.
Eventually, the Trump Organization gave Cohen the $50,000 needed to repay the firm.
But when it came time to pay the company, Cohen gave them $20,000 and kept the remaining remaining $30,000.
"I went to TD bank and took out cash over a couple of days," Cohen explained. "I just didn’t want to take out $20,000."
Withdrawing more than $20,000 from a savings account automatically triggers the bank filing a report with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit (FinCen), Yahoo Finance explained.
Notably, Cohen also testified that he made the payment to the company by putting cash into a brown paper bag.
Trump's lawyer, Todd Blanche, asked if that meant Cohen stole $30,000 from Trump, and Cohen testified "yes."
Cohen taking the $30,000 isn't what is on trial nor is it relevant to the hush money scheme. Still, the prosecutors refrained from objecting to the line of questioning.
The U.S. Flag Code outlines: "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."
Alito blamed his wife for the move, saying she was upset at lawn signs with swear words. Several signs popped up around the election, reading, "f--- Trump." She complained that children waiting for the bus saw the vulgar word.
"If you want to connect the image that you saw, you don’t have to look far," said former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann. "If you look at what Alito said in the immunity argument — the argument was should a president be subject to the criminal laws. And it was unbelievable. Somebody who is a U.S. attorney, now sitting in the Supreme Court of the United States, took the position, we cannot trust DOJ, we cannot trust a grand jury of citizens, we cannot trust the criminal justice system, which by the way, he oversees the constitutional limits on what the government can do, we can’t trust that and that’s why a president should be immune."
She later noted that Chief Justice John Roberts has the power to hold the justices to the same standards as other judges, but he has been unwilling to do so.
She counted off rules such as "employees of the Supreme Court may not engage in partisan political activity, partisan political activity related to elections contested by political parties. For example, employees may not publicly support or oppose a partisan political organization or candidate."
Another is that "employees may not engage in nonpartisan activity if it could reflect adversely on the dignity or impartiality of the court or interferes with the duties."
Wallace said that the "upside-down flag is associated with one of the two parties, Trump supporters, at the Capitol that day and absolutely makes it impossible for that body to be dignified."
"Can we consider for a moment what Justice Alito's defense is here?" he said. "Understanding that because of the photo, he can't just say it didn't happen. Let's even assume his wife put it up, and take that as a given. Even though we just have the statement, there's lots of reasons to think — it's his lawn. But he didn't see it?"
Wallace noted that Alito never said in the statement that he didn't see it, only that his wife did it.
"It's up for days. He never saw that? I mean, he didn't talk to his wife? He didn't see the flag? He didn't think, maybe I should take this down? Remember the environment we were in. Let's go back to Jan. 6th. What was going on in Washington? I mean, I keep saying this about the judges who have these cases; everyone who was in Washington lived it. It was happening there around them."
He explained that he doesn't think people who weren't there can fully understand how central Jan. 6 was to those who live in America's capital and "how shocking" it was "even for us just watching it on TV."
"And he didn't think, maybe I should take this down?" asked Weissmann. "I mean, and then the response, I'm doing this in response to what? How is putting a 'Stop the Steal' flag that you know about, you are not taking down, how is that somehow justified by a neighbor?"
Weissmann wondered what would happen if the neighbor promoted Joe Biden.
"That means you put up this flag as a sitting Supreme Court Justice? It is so much, 'Might makes right.' It is such a denigration of what should be a court that people revere."
The Commission on Presidential Debates knows that it endured a "potentially mortal wound" after presidential candidates circumvented the group to navigate their own debate schedule and rules.
Speaking to Politico, lobbyist and former Republican Party chair Frank J. Fahrenkopf, who also chairs the debate commission, whined he's not happy with the Democratic president.
In a letter, the campaign called the commission's debates “noisy spectacles” that are far too late in the election season.
Early voting means that in some states, voting begins Sept. 20, so the debates wouldn't have much of an impact.
Scientific American revealed in 2020 that the debates have "shockingly little effect on election outcomes." But four years later, the commission proposed the same schedule with the same rules, which the Biden campaign alleged go unenforced.
The Biden team didn't want that this time around.
In the 2020 debates, Donald Trump continued talking over Biden, making it impossible for Americans to hear about certain policy issues.
At the same time, Biden's team complained that the traditional debates are nothing more than a ratings spectacle, with each side packing the rooms to see which could yell the loudest.
Fahrenkopf said the claim was “false,” and the campaign didn't know what they were talking about regarding early voting. He then said that Biden advisers Anita Dunn and Ron Klain don't like the commission.
This time around, however, the network will attempt to stop Trump from cutting in by shutting off his microphone. Trump still has the ability to scream at the top of his lungs and try to throw Biden off.
Fahrenkopf also wants Robert Kennedy Jr. on the stage. There are other candidates under the Green Party or Libertarian Party, and others, that will have candidates ballots. However, they wouldn't have the ability to be on the stage.
