Haha. He’s constantly batting back memes these days. “I don’t use a teleprompter!” “I don’t sleep during the trial!”
Calling Giuliani’s lawyer Robert Costello to the stand would be legal malpractice if it weren’t for the fact that it was probably because Trump demanded it. The cross examination today was just brutal. Basically the prosecutors just read all of Costello’s emails to Cohen in which he was clearly trying to keep him from turning on Trump when he very briefly became the “back channel” between Rudy Giuliani (Trump) and Cohen. The whole thing sounbds like nothing short of an episode of the Sopranos.
He first met Cohen in person and told him how close he was with Giuliani, which Cohen denied on the stand. The prosecutor Susan Hoffinger made him look at the email he sent two days later: “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 absurdly answered.
Hoffinger showed another email in which Costello wrote that Giuliani had a position with the White House that made it “all the more reason” for Cohen to hire him “which I mentioned at our meeting.” Costello again denied that it meant what it clearly meant and was reportedly annoyed at the question. (Didn’t he review any of these emails?)
Costello repeatedly denied being a ” backchannel” and has said that the emails spoke for themselves and he was right. They say that he’s a lying piece of work. One of them even showed that Costello wrote to Cohen to tell him that Giuliani “said thank you for opening this back channel of communication.” Hoffinger asked him if that email speaks for itself and he wouldn’t answer saying that he had an explanation as to what it really meant. She moved on.
Over and over again she showed the emails proving that they had pressured Cohen not to cooperate with the government. It really could not be more obvious. He was under investigation by the FBI and Costello reminded him “sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.” Costello admitted that he was talking about Trump.
She then confronted him with an email to his law partner that said “our issue is to get Cohen on the right page.” Hoffinger asked him, “the email speaks for itself, correct?” He replied, “sometimes.”
According to reporting inside the courtroom he kept trying to interrupt and slag on Cohen and was repeatedly told by the prosecution to answer yes or no. After the strong admonishment by the judge yesterday he was forced to comply even though he was obviously upset.
The prosecutors finally questioned him about why he went to congress last week to testify that Cohen was a dirty, no good liar while he was on the stand in New York. She asked him if it was a tactic to intimidate a witness and he said that was ridiculous.
Was it? With every MAGA freakshow traipsing up to New York, dressed in a Trump costume, to sit behind Trump in the courtroom every day, is it really too much to believe that the House extremists called him to a hastily convened hearing to testify publicly about Michael Cohen while he was testifying? Their whole clown show is about fealty to Dear Leader and intimidation of anyone who crosses him.
The real question is why they thought it was a good idea to put Costello on the stand as well. They had to know about the emails. They had to realize that he’s right up there with Giuliani with the black drips pouring down his face. The only reasonable explanation is that Trump loved his blustering spittle last week in that hearing and thought it would be great to have it in the court room. He’s an idiot.
The defense then rested its case. No Trump testimony. After all, he is also a coward.