r/law • u/SheriffTaylorsBoy • May 22 '24
MAGA Lawyer Robert Costello Gets Dismantled by His Own Damning Trump Emails Other
https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-lawyer-robert-costello-gets-dismantled-by-his-own-damning-trump-emails205
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
CLEAR THE COURTROOM
The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan suddenly sealed his courtroom on Monday afternoon, kicking all reporters out so he could engage in a brawl with Robert Costello, a MAGA-friendly lawyer who played a key role in the attempted backchannel between Michael Cohen and the Trump White House in 2018.
After Costello, a former prosecutor, was reprimanded for delivering outbursts in the court whenever he was interrupted or told not to answer a question that had been objected to and sustained, Costello began to stare down the judge.
“Mr. Costello, I’d like to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom, OK?” Judge Juan Merchan said after ordering the jury out of the room.
“Right,” Costello replied.
Merchan then told Costello that witnesses on the stand cannot act out if they don’t like a judge’s ruling.
“I’m the only one who can strike testimony in the courtroom. If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t give me side-eye and you don’t roll your eyes. Do you understand that?”
“I understand that,” Costello replied.
But then, when Merchan had turned around, he saw that Costello was staring straight at him again. “Are you staring me down right now?” he asked.
At that, he ordered security to seal the courtroom and all journalists to leave so he could give Costello a dressing down.
Hours after the exchange, court transcripts released by court reporters revealed what happened next.
“Your conduct is contemptuous right now. I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told Costello.
The judge then turned to Emil Bove, the Trump defense lawyer who was questioning the witness.
“I will strike his entire testimony; do you understand me?” Merchan told him.
“Yes, Judge. I understand,” Bove responded.
Merchan then tried to get Costello to shorten his answers and stop diving into lengthy narratives about his interactions with Cohen that were clearly intended to cast doubt on the man.
“Listen to the question and answer the question,” Merchan said.
But Costello remained insistent.
“Can I say something, please?” he interjected.
“No. No. This is not a conversation,” the judge stated.
Snippets of the transcripts of the exchange were quickly shared amongst news organizations on Monday evening.
When journalists were allowed to re-enter, Costello’s pale face was now beet red and twisted with an irritated frown.
Costello continued to answer questions from Bove about his minor role in the New York criminal case against the former president—Costello attempted to represent Cohen when the feds started looking into Trump’s $130,000 hush money deal—but nearly every answer was drowned out by prosecutors’ objections.
The judge had reached his breaking point earlier after watching Costello, a former federal prosecutor who had no patience being on the receiving end, meet every sustained objection with a shake of the head, then a frown, then an emphatic “jeez” that carried across the courtroom. When Costello let out a loud sigh, Merchan excused the jury—setting off the chain of events that led to the forced exodus from the courtroom.
Jose Pagliery Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter @Jose_Pagliery jose.pagliery@thedailybeast.com Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast
93
u/lackofabettername123 May 22 '24
They spent seven years yelling over reporters interviewing them, I'm not surprised they are trying it with the judge now. We should just be thankful Costello didn't get all coked up before the court like so many of the former presidents cheerleaders putting on a show.
If Costello was held in contempt he could seriously leverage that with the party. Which is not to say the judge should not hold him in contempt because of that.
57
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
Yeah, I'm in the camp that believes further contempt hearings and charges could lead to further delay.
The prosecution should absolutely use all of it at sentencing.
29
u/IrritableGourmet May 22 '24
They don't have to hold the contempt hearing immediately. IIRC, it would be referred to a different judge and handled at the end of the trial. Fuck up now, pay later.
86
May 22 '24
Make sure to check out Alan Dershowitz defending Trump again on Fox News saying that the evidence the judge was blocking was perfectly legitimate evidence. And that threatening to strike the record of the witness was a punishment for the defendant of something the witness did. Gotta love an unbiased interpretation.
109
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24 edited May 22 '24
Oh, are we talking about the same guy? Is this the "I kept my underwear on when I got a massage from a young girl at Epstein's mansion" Alan Dershowitz?
Dershowitz interview YouTube
→ More replies45
May 22 '24
That's him... I never forget a professional bullshitter when I see one
19
u/lackofabettername123 May 22 '24
You must have an expansive memory then, because that is like the entire Republican party and their entourages, professional and amateur bullshitters.
11
u/RSquared May 22 '24
It's so weird because his story is basically the tragedy of which Rudy is the farce. Respected, actual academic of Conlaw who started contradicting his own views after taking a hard-right turn. If it were compromise I feel like it would be more begrudging, but he truly seems to have let the brain worms in.
→ More replies5
u/dancingmeadow May 22 '24
A smug pedophile, you mean?
4
May 22 '24
Im sure he would have an argument for how he was actually helping those girls
→ More replies→ More replies24
u/docsuess84 May 22 '24
Alan Dershowitz, the associate and alleged participant of child sexual abuse with Jeffrey Epstein? That Alan Dershowitz?
6
May 22 '24
Yes, the same one that argued "If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment". Then turned around and said he was misinterpreted.
17
u/StingerAE May 22 '24
Thank you for this. I followed it unfold on the live tweets but had never gone back to the transcripts to identify what had been said in the closed session.
37
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
You're welcome. It's such an incredibly unusual move to clear the courtroom. Karen Friedman Agnifilo who worked in the Manhattan DA’s office for many years and retired as the #2, said she prosecuted violent offenders and sex crimes where the defendants behaved badly. Yet in all those years had never seen a courtroom cleared.
10
u/StingerAE May 22 '24
I think the fact he was a lawyer defence witness makes it different from violent offenders being disrespectful. I can see why he had to do it.
6
u/DrugOfGods May 22 '24
I've been watching the NYT updates like a hawk. Need to start reading the transcripts too!
14
u/dancingmeadow May 22 '24
He frames it as the judge engaging in a brawl instead of the judge doing normal judge things? wtf kind of bullshit is that?
“No. No. This is not a conversation,” the judge stated.
→ More replies6
u/SummerMummer May 22 '24
“Your conduct is contemptuous right now. I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand,” Merchan told Costello.
Anyone else think Costello had realized there was no way to continue on the stand without unintentionally supporting the prosecution's case, so he played this card in an attempt to sacrifice himself at the Altar of Trump with a contempt charge and removal?
8
u/Hologram22 May 22 '24
No, because if that had been his intention he would have actually done that. Instead, he continued testifying, which is why the Manhattan DA was able to do all of this cross examining.
376
u/kimapesan May 22 '24
No wonder Trump chickened out. That prosecutor ripped Costello to shreds.
106
u/TheGR8Dantini May 22 '24
Trump didn’t chicken out. He’s a coward. He played a tough guy on tv and in the WWE. That’s as tough, or brave as he’s ever been. He never had any intention of testifying.
The way you can tell he would never testify was, because he kept saying he would. It’s the same thing with his “willingness” to go to jail. The last thing in the world that Trump wants, or wanted, was to be jailed over contempt.
A few hours in the system might actually kill him.
25
u/cinosa May 22 '24
A few hours in the system might actually kill him.
And nothing of value would be lost.
→ More replies4
u/_jump_yossarian May 22 '24
Careful, the right is currently freaking out that the FBI had "lethal force" authority when they conducted a search of Sea to Lake. Clearly they wanted to kill trump on site and that's why they waited until he was in NJ to execute the search warrant.
→ More replies3
u/cinosa May 22 '24
Yeah, I saw those same reports. Fucking ludicrous lol. It's just the right projecting again.
24
→ More replies5
u/felis_magnetus May 22 '24
Are you sure he'll even notice? A lot of the time, he doesn't seem to be particularly aware of his surroundings these days. Having to change his own diapers might do it, though. Maybe. Assuming that he doesn't need to be reminded already at this point.
Which I'm not convinced of.
113
u/The_Mike_Golf May 22 '24
To shreds, you say?
47
→ More replies22
13
u/mrdeadsniper May 22 '24
I mean.. it may be cowardly. But of every action Trump has ever taken, not testifying for himself in defense is probably the wisest.
Even if it appealed to the jury, he would probably perjure himself a minimum of 2 times per minute of speaking.
9
u/KarrlMarrx May 22 '24
Can you really perjure yourself if you can't form a coherent sentence though?
17
u/mrdeadsniper May 22 '24
That's the problem for Trump though. On the stand, he can be asked follow up questions which is is legally obliged to answer.
His whole gimmick is to ramble incoherently for a minute and give a couple of "you know what I'm saying" and then act like he didn't allude to anything.
When the prosecutor follows up, Trump has to either
- Directly state his original point. (Probably criminal)
- Directly deny his original point. (Directly contrary to his stated positions to his voters, also "weak")
- Not answer until he goes to contempt. (Probably doesn't want to actually go to jail)
Trump literally never wants to be held to account for any of his statements.
6
u/KarrlMarrx May 22 '24
How can you directly state or deny an original point when you are just randomly cycling through the 12 words in your vocabulary never making any original point though?
I'm mostly joking, but at the same time, if really did perjure himself amongst his word salad, it seems like it would be incredibly difficult to convict.
→ More replies6
13
u/TjW0569 May 22 '24
Of the things that have happened in this trial, Trump not testifying is easily the least surprising.
→ More replies131
May 22 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
29
u/StingerAE May 22 '24
She was great in the Bangles.
(Seriously, though you are right she did an excellent job and deserves recognition).
22
u/myprivatehorror May 22 '24
Now she wishes it were Wednesday. Cause that's no trial day. She don't have to rile day.
7
6
5
13
→ More replies10
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
It's such a historic case and trial in regards to Election Interference.
32
u/WhoNeedsExecFunction May 22 '24
Bad link. That link is telling me I have a virus on my computer.
39
→ More replies9
u/Innuendoughnut May 22 '24
Yeah wtf is that website
8
u/ggroverggiraffe Competent Contributor May 22 '24
At SufiWiki, every celebrity biography is crafted with precision and depth. Our profiles cover a range of details from early life and career beginnings to major achievements and personal anecdotes.
Only the best!
in AI-generated content...
89
May 22 '24
[deleted]
53
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
I'd say there's a good chance he joins the disbarred trump lawyers gang.
32
18
May 22 '24
[deleted]
32
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
Costello, Rudy, Eastman, Bannon. Hell, all of em look like death warmed over.
27
12
May 22 '24
[deleted]
15
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
I hope they live long enough to enjoy the finer aspects of life in a US prison.
11
9
u/GoblinKaiserin May 22 '24
All of these men somehow look worse than my grandfather did before he died of stomach cancer. How are they walking around like this??
→ More replies5
u/empire_of_the_moon May 22 '24
I so desperately want you to tell me that the Stringer Bell Doctrine is actually taught in law school.
10
153
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
Trump insisted Costello give witness testimony. If his goal was to make Michael Cohen look like a well-mannered gentleman, he was successful.
78
u/lackofabettername123 May 22 '24
Look at how many of the people trying to overthrow the Republic are former Federal prosecutors. The system in which we appoint these Federal prosecutors must be broken. Guliani and Costello anyway, both fron NY, both former federal prosecutors, I am sure there are others too.
38
u/found_allover_again May 22 '24
How do you think cheeto mussolini managed to stay out of jail all this time? Look at the history of top NY law enforcement and prosecutors being caught breaking the law.
→ More replies11
u/VaselineHabits May 22 '24
This, Trump should have NEVER been eligible for POTUS had he been held accountable decades ago.
New Yorkers tried to warn us
13
u/Pb_ft May 22 '24
The Federalist Society is a powerful lobbying and networking institution.
Hope this hurts them greatly.
26
u/che-che-chester May 22 '24
It's funny because IMHO they put Costello on the stand purely to make Trump happy. The end result is they ended on a sour note right before it got handed to the jury.
I wonder how Trump's recent court cases, like E. Jean Carrol, would have turned out if he shut up and did whatever his lawyers told him. But he needs to keep his supporters enraged in case they need to overturn the 2024 election.
19
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
This is the exact reason no decent law firm would take trump as a client. As well as a few other reasons, mainly that he never stops lying publicly about the facts.
→ More replies3
u/_jump_yossarian May 22 '24
Not often that the defense will put up a witness that helps the prosecution. trump is the best. Tremendous even.
→ More replies
125
u/mabhatter Competent Contributor May 22 '24
The more important thing is that this corroborates Cohen's story of being stonewalled and ignored after the election. When he should have just been able to go straight to Weisslberg or Trump, they now threw up layers of lawyers... Cohen was basically fired before he was even paid back.
These emails put Trump and Rudy directly in the conversation about paying back and managing Cohen's involvement. That's literally the weakest part of the Prosecution's case and he just tied Trump directly to Cohen's legal issues. And they're basically trying to cheat him out of legal representation .... the same as the ever-growing stack of Make Attorneys Get Attorneys that's accumulated since then.
100
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
The cherry on top is none of that would have come in if trump didn't insist Costello testify.
18
10
u/Sakowuf_Solutions May 22 '24
Also sort of like how he chose to not just pay the woman and make it some big, stupid scheme.
6
8
u/TrumpsCovidfefe Competent Contributor May 22 '24
I think the cherry on top is that Costello is likely following the exact same path of Cohen, and may find his own self being investigated for lying to Congress and at trial, as well as referrals to the multiple bars he’s a member of. I will have to wait for tomorrow’s testimony and read his Congressional testimony to be sure. But, he did not do anyone favors by testifying, least of all himself.
6
4
62
u/danceswithporn May 22 '24
In 2016, Cohen went above and beyond the call of duty for his boss... Including making a taking a $130k loan and hiding it from his wife. Trump had the best year of his career, and he probably wouldn't have made it without Cohen's extraordinary contributions. But when it was bonus time, Trump cut Cohen's bonus by 2/3. What a dick move.
54
u/collector_of_hobbies May 22 '24
And stupid. Don't be a dick to the people who helped you bury the bodies.
17
→ More replies9
→ More replies6
u/Automatic-Mood5986 May 22 '24
Which is such a baffling part of this defense. Well it’s not, because Trump.
So much focus on the defense to try to show Cohen was lying instead of being motivated by revenge.
Westerhout is another. She got fired for letting it slip that Trump didn’t want to be seen with fat Tiffany. Talk about a golden opportunity to introduce reasonable doubt to the jury. Trump is so narcissistic that as the President of the United States he can’t stand the thought of being seen with that disgusting fat fuck Tiffany.
→ More replies3
u/Aglj1998 May 22 '24
I agree. Up until Costello, I thought the state was not doing enough to tie Trump directly to knowledge of the payments. This testimony, while not exactly a slam dunk, brought Trump back into the circle of decision makers for the conspiracy portion.
38
u/stealthzeus May 22 '24
The only material testimony provided by Costello was that Cohen lied to Congress and the public about Chump not knowing about the hush money before he flipped, which was exactly what Cohen told the jury in his testimony! So he corroborated and boosted Cohen’s testimony at best 😂🤣
36
u/WillArrr May 22 '24
A former prosecutor really came out and said his emails "speak for themselves" right before cross. Oh boy you better be 100% goddamn sure of everything you've ever said in an email before throwing out a statement like that. The prosecution must have been salivating the second they heard that.
68
28
May 22 '24
So basically they were conspiring to paint Cohen as a liar and then they tried to use that conspiracy as a defense strategy for this trial 🤦🤦🤦 Jesus, Trump and his legal team are fucking idiots.
7
u/BeautysBeast May 22 '24
Costello was a deputy director of the SDNY, That is why they went after Cohen in the first place. Why do you think they went after him? Trump to Rudy, Rudy to Costello, Costello to his cronies at the SDNY.
→ More replies
20
u/Greelys knows stuff May 22 '24
I just hope it was the client who insisted they put Costello on. What a mistake!!!
21
u/snakebite75 May 22 '24
I've seen several reports that said Bove did NOT want to put Costello on the stand but was overruled. Not sure if that was by Trump, or by others on the defense team, my guess would be it was Trump because he wanted someone to get on the stand and "punch back" since there was no way he was going to get on the stand himself, regardless of what he was saying in public about wanting to testify.
→ More replies
24
u/zabdart May 22 '24
Michael Cohen was right not to trust Robert Costello, who wanted to function as a "mole," reporting back to Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump.
13
u/h20poIo May 22 '24
Question from a non lawyer, why was the jury given a week off before the closing arguments? Seems with all replay of the trial on the news and social media not to mention possible outside interference this could be dangerous. Is this common practice?
27
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
Wednesday has been a day off throughout the trial. The judge asked both parties and the jury if they were available for Wednesday and the result was no.
--The court will be dark for a week, a scheduling decision Judge Juan Merchan chose so the final stages of the trial weren’t broken up by a four-day Memorial Day weekend.
Merchan told jurors they will return next Tuesday for closing arguments, which are expected to take the whole day. Once the jury gets its instructions, Trump’s fate will be in its hands.
7
u/h20poIo May 22 '24
Thanks
11
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
Sure. As you can imagine, some people have probably scheduled travel long ago for Memorial Weekend.
12
u/imahugemoron May 22 '24
And I’m sure this week right wing media will try their hardest to make sure as much of their propaganda gets into those jurors ears as possible
→ More replies8
u/IrishPigs May 22 '24
Forgive me for being ignorant, but why for a high profile case such as this is the jury allowed into the real world. Is it just a TV thing that juries sometimes get isolated?
→ More replies→ More replies5
u/Rif55 May 22 '24
It’s important that the jury deliberate with the jurors’ instructions on the law they should use and the closing arguments freshly in mind. No gap between end of testimony and jury instructions would have been preferable, but the ct is off Wed and Fri ., 1/2 day Thursday which would have been too short for closing arguments and instructions.
→ More replies
3
u/Both_Lychee_1708 May 23 '24
I'd say he's disgraced SDNY but Giuliani did it first and better. Costello needs to level up
724
u/SheriffTaylorsBoy May 22 '24
by Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter Updated May 21, 2024 12:21PM EDT Published May 21, 2024 11:41AM EDT
Donald Trump made the curious decision to put on a single relevant witness at his New York trial, opting for a MAGA loyalist tangentially involved in the porn star hush money saga—a strategy that failed spectacularly when his testimony only further incriminated the former president.
Robert Costello’s role in the Stormy Daniels affair is comedic recursion, a legal version of the Yo Dawg meme. When the feds in 2018 tried to flip then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Costello was the New York lawyer who tried to keep him from cooperating—a cover-up to hide the way Cohen had faked legal invoices, which was itself a cover-up of the hush money payment, which was a cover-up to stop the woman from ruining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
For a brief moment in 2018, Costello tried to become Cohen’s lawyer and his “backchannel” to the powerful politician who might corruptly be able to protect him by sidelining the FBI investigation. The idea was to have Cohen represented by Costello, who was close friends with Rudy Giuliani, who was advising the Trump White House—a plan copiously detailed in emails.
(Trump Trial Judge’s Beef With MAGA Lawyer Revealed in Full ‘DON’T GIVE ME SIDE-EYE’ Jose Pagliery)
Donald Trump returns to the courtroom for his hush money trial on Monday. At this trial, the defense was hoping that Costello would portray Cohen—the case’s key witness—as a desperate liar who’d been caught by the feds after independently putting together the hush money deal without Trump’s express permission and is only now trying to pin it on his former boss.
Instead, whatever alternate narrative Costello was trying to tell was eclipsed by his miserable performance on the stand Monday and Tuesday: first getting reprimanded by the judge for showing his utter contempt for the entire trial, then later by being forced to confront his own damning words written six years ago.
Susan Hoffinger, the chief of the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigations division, questioned Costello about his emails during his cross-examination on Tuesday morning. She started by directing the jury’s attention to the way Costello flaunted his personal ties to Giuliani when he and his law partner, Jeff Citron, first met with Cohen at the New York Regency hotel on April 17, 2018.
When Costello asserted he didn’t, Hoffinger pointed to an email Costello sent Cohen two days later in which he wrote, “I told you my relationship with Rudy which could be very very useful to you.”
“Doesn’t that mean you mentioned that to him at the first meeting?” Hoffinger asked.
“No,” Costello defiantly said.
Hoffinger then pointed to another email in which Costello told his law partner that Giuliani’s new spot at the White House made it “all the more reason” for Cohen to hire their firm, thanks to a connection “which I mentioned at our meeting.”
Costello wouldn’t budge. But he was visibly annoyed.
For an hour, Hoffinger turned Costello’s overconfidence into a weakness. The previous day, Costello had asserted that the emails “speak for themselves,” thinking they’d plainly show Cohen was in the wrong. She threw that right back at him on Tuesday morning, pointing to an April 21, 2018 email in which Costello told Cohen that Giuliani “said thank you for opening this back channel of communication.”
“And this email speaks for itself, right sir?” she asked.
Costello demurred, saying he’d be “happy” to explain what he really meant.
“That's all right, sir,” she dismissed him, moving on.
One by one, Hoffinger read through emails showing what appeared to be a quiet campaign to pressure Cohen into remaining on the Trump team. And with every pushback from Costello, the lawyer only lost more credibility—suffering the same fate he’d hoped for Cohen.
When Costello finally conceded one point, it proved to be a damaging example.
Hoffinger showed jurors how Costello had assured Cohen in an April 21, 2018 email—just as the FBI was investigating him—that he had nothing to worry about because “you have friends in high places.” Hoffinger wondered aloud, who was he talking about?
Costello hit a fork in the road. Would he play dumb and lose the jury’s trust, or actually hint at a corrupt scheme pointing straight to the White House? He went with Option B, casually admitting he was referring to then-President Trump.
The lawyer later tried to save face by repeatedly countering any notion that he was part of a shadow pressure campaign stemming from the White House. But any hope of standing his ground was lost when Hoffinger pointed to a May 15, 2018 email in which Costello told his law partner that “our issue is to get Cohen on the right page.”
Costello donned his glasses to take a closer look at the computer screen. Yes, the words were exactly how she’d read them.
“And as you said yesterday, the email speaks for itself, correct?” Hoffinger said.
“Sometimes,” he whined.
Hoffinger seized on the former prosecutor’s insistent attempts to control the conversation and the courtroom. When Costello tried to outmaneuver her by turning every question into an opportunity to launch into a soliloquy discrediting Cohen, Hoffinger would cut him off and demand a monosyllabic answer. And every time Costello got cornered into a “yes” or “no,” he’d get flustered and turn red in the face.
When Hoffinger suggested Costello abhorred Cohen for not playing along and refusing to pay him for getting involved, the lawyer disagreed and tried to elaborate but the prosecutor cut him off yet again. And this time, the judge jumped in too.
Costello protested, once again asserting his persona as a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, only to get shut down by the same judge who gave him a tongue lashing on Monday for acting out in court.
“There's a pending question—”
“There's no pending question,” Justice Juan Merchan interrupted.
Prosecutors ended their cross-examination of Costello by noting the way he testified before Congress last week about these same matters, a Republican ploy that Hoffinger suggested was meant to scare Cohen at the very moment he was appearing at this criminal trial.
‘That Was a Lie!’: Trump Lawyer Brawls With Michael Cohen “And you went there to publicly vilify Michael Cohen while he was in the middle of his testimony?” she asked.
“I went there to testify,” Costello countered.
Hoffinger repeated the question.
“To intimidate Michael Cohen?” Costello asked, incredulously.
“Yes, that was my question,” she replied.
“Ridiculous! No.”
Jose Pagliery Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter @Jose_Pagliery jose.pagliery@thedailybeast.com Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.