The case against Donald Trump has already suffered multiple setbacks, yet the hits keep on coming.
On Wednesday, Robert Costello, the former attorney for Michael Cohen, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Government, and it made everything worse for Michael Cohen and Alvin Bragg. And the least damaging thing may have been Costello’s description of Cohen as a “habitual liar and totally unreliable witness.”
Costello informed Congress that Cohen told his legal team in 2018 that he unilaterally devised the “hush-money” scheme that Trump has now been charged with and is on trial for, and admitted not having any incriminating evidence against Trump.
Costello, once the deputy chief of the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office’ prestigious criminal division, alleges in his prepared testimony obtained by Just the News that Cohen repeatedly insisted that Trump had done nothing wrong when he was debriefed in 2018 while federal prosecutors were investigating whether Trump violated any election laws in 2016. Ultimately, federal prosecutors chose not to bring charges.
Costello said Cohen at the time was suicidal and had been assured he could have gotten a deal from federal prosecutors if he delivered provable dirt on the former president.
Here’s what Costello testified to before Congress, according to his prepared remarks:
I specifically asked him — because he kept on going back saying, “I can’t believe they’re trying to put me in jail for these NDAs” — so I said, “Michael, tell me about the NDA, tell me about Stormy Daniels — what did you do?” He said, “I got a call from a lawyer representing Stormy Daniels, who represented that she was going to testify that Donald Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels.” Michael Cohen said, “I didn’t believe the allegation, but I knew that such an allegation would be terribly embarrassing.” He said it would be embarrassing — he focused on Melania Trump. He said, “I didn’t want to embarrass Melania Trump.” He said, “That’s why I decided to take care of this on my own.”
I went back to that several times: “You did this on your own?” “On my own.” “Did Donald Trump have anything to do with it?” “No.” “Did you get the money from Donald Trump?” “No.” “From any of his organizations?” “No.” “From anybody connected to Donald Trump?” “No.” “Where did you get the money?” “I took out a HELOC loan against my property.” I said, “Why would you do that?” He said, “I didn’t want anybody to know where I got this money. I didn’t want Melania to know; I didn’t want my own wife to know because she’s in charge,” he said, “of the Cohen family finances.” He said, “If she saw money coming out of my account, she’d ask me a hundred questions, and I didn’t want to answer any of them.”
Costello continued by pointing out that Cohen’s motivation for going after Trump was that he felt betrayed for not getting a job in his administration, which jibes with the previous testimony of Keith Davidson, who was Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, who not only didn’t believe Stormy Daniels’ claims about Trump, but also that Cohen was “despondent” when he didn’t get a White House job after Trump won the presidency in 2016.
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Costello’s testimony continued.
It was clear, after talking to him for several days after that, whenever we talked — on the phone or in my office — that he kept on bringing up the subject that he felt he was betrayed by not being brought down to Washington, D.C. This guy thought — he said to me — that he should have been attorney general of the United States, or at least the chief assistant to the president. Ludicrous! But that’s what he thought. And he was very angry about that. He wanted to do something to put himself back into the inner circle of Donald Trump. That’s why he took care of this on his own — there had to be a motivation.
Michael Cohen is always working for things that benefit himself. And that’s what he was doing here. That’s completely different to what he said that he told the grand jury; that’s completely different to what he’s testifying to in New York. Nobody has heard this side of the equation.
You can watch it below.
#BREAKING: Michael Cohen’s former attorney reveals huge news:
1. Michael Cohen didn’t actually believe the Stormy Daniels allegation.
2. Cohen paid Stormy Daniels all on his own.
3. President Trump had nothing to do with it. pic.twitter.com/jPeuitMjTV
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 15, 2024
Cohen claims he wasn’t telling Costello the truth because he didn’t trust him—which is perhaps not the greatest thing to say when you’re hoping to be believed on the witness stand when you’ve already been convicted of lying under oath.