Donald Trump’s preposterous “hush money” trial in Manhattan is winding to a close, but the defense has decided to drag it out for one extra day. They will be calling on attorney Robert Costello to testify today to further undermine the prosecution’s “star” witness, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen. How well that will work out remains to be seen because Judge Juan Merchan simply despises Costello as he demonstrated in court yesterday. Costello was in court yesterday, briefly taking the stand. Merchan glared at Costello and eventually dismissed the press from the courtroom so he could admonish the witness. He reportedly accused Costello of “rolling his eyes” and muttering under his breath about how the entire trial was “ridiculous.” It will be interesting to see how much testimony Costello is even allowed to give without being continually interrupted by the judge. (Associated Press)
A defense witness in Donald Trump’s hush money case whom the judge threatened to remove from the trial over his behavior will return to the stand Tuesday as the trial nears its end.
Trump’s lawyers are hoping Robert Costello’s testimony will help undermine the credibility of a key prosecution witness, Trump fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen.
But Costello angered Judge Juan Merchan on Monday by making comments under his breath, rolling his eyes and calling the whole exercise “ridiculous,” prompting the judge to briefly kick reporters out of the courtroom to admonish him.
Merchan also accused Costello of “staring him down.” (In other words, he was looking at the judge, which is apparently not allowed in that courtroom.) He has already threatened to remove Costello from the stand. This type of inappropriate behavior from a judge would probably result in the entire trial being scrapped in more normal circumstances, but this is New York that we’re talking about.
Merchan’s motives once again seem obvious. Rather than seeking the truth and presenting all of the facts in evidence for the jury, Juan Merchan (a Biden donor whose daughter is making vast amounts of money off of this trial) desperately wants to see Donald Trump convicted and he hasn’t made much of an effort to hide that reality. Bob Costello previously represented Michael Cohen and has plenty of dirt to dish on him, further shooting holes in the prosecution’s claims.
Personally, I’m not sure why Trump’s legal team decided to call Costello to the stand rather than simply moving to closing arguments. Michael Cohen has already undermined his own testimony to the point where there’s only so much more damage Costello could do. That includes his recent admission under oath that he embezzled tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization. He was also caught lying about a phone call he allegedly made to Trump confirming the payment that was made to Stormy Daniels. (The call was actually made to one of Trump’s bodyguards and lasted less than two minutes.)
There is a risk in putting Costello on the stand because it gives the prosecution another opportunity to attempt to rehabilitate their discredited star witness. But that risk may be minimal considering what an epic disaster Cohen has been on the stand. The prosecution has utterly failed to demonstrate that any actual crime took place, to say nothing of whether or not Donald Trump was personally responsible for it if it did. I’m sure that some of those jurors from New York’s Trump-hating, liberal jury pool will still manage to vote to find him guilty, but there only needs to be one of them (preferably at least a couple) who still has a conscience to hang the jury and send this case to the dustbin of history. We can’t say for sure if that’s what will happen, but it would be priceless to see the look on Juan Merchan’s face if it does.