Lawyer: Michael Cohen said ‘numerous times’ Trump didn’t know about Stormy Daniels payments – as it happened – The Guardian US
This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the hush-money trial, read our full report:
“I want to focus very narrowly,” Bove asked Robert Costello after the sidebar wrapped, “what did Michael Cohen say about that specific topic” of Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels. Costello said:
Michael Cohen said, numerous times, that President Trump knew nothing about those payments, that he did this on his own … He repeated that numerous times.
Was Rudy Giuliani mentioned at this meeting?
His name came up very briefly as I had been a […] assistant of his in the early 70s. Other than that, we didn’t discuss him.
Robert Costello, a lawyer called by the defense team, will resume his testimony when court resumes tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, prosecutors rested their case after Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former fixer and the prosecution’s key witness, completed his testimony today.
Here’s a recap of the day’s developments:
Michael Cohen testified that he knew the $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels violated election law – even though he claimed otherwise in a 2018 letter. Cohen’s testimony implicated that Donald Trump, by extension, must also have believed that the money violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (which caps individual contributions to campaigns at $2,000 a year) since it was to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Cohen’s testimony marked an important moment as it was the closest the prosecution has come to tying Trump to the alleged falsification of business records with an intent to commit a second crime – in this case, violating federal campaign contributions law.
The prosecution also attempted to undercut the Trump defense team’s contention that Cohen had a track record of lying whenever it suited his needs, such as when he lied to a federal judge in 2018 that he was not pressured into pleading guilty to tax evasion – which he later disavowed.
The pushback from prosecutors came after Trump’s lead defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, suggested that Cohen and the former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg between themselves devised a complicated scheme to repay Cohen of the Daniels hush money and other expenses that came from his own pocket – but not the former president himself.
The defense also suggested that Cohen concocted the idea to “gross up” the repayment, which prosecutors have said Trump approved and violated state tax law, in order to increase the amount of money he got from the Trump Organization in 2016, after his bonus was lower than in 2015. “So you stole from the Trump Organization?” Blanche asked, his voice reaching a crescendo. “Yes, sir,” Cohen conceded.
After Cohen left the witness stand, prosecutors rested their case and Trump’s lawyers began calling witnesses of their own: paralegal Daniel Sitko, and Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor who has publicly blasted Cohen. Costello had offered to represent Cohen soon after his hotel room, office and home were raided.
Costello testified that Cohen told him “numerous times” that Trump “knew nothing” about the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.
Judge Juan Merchan briefly closed the courtroom and forcer reporters out after he admonished Costello for his behavior on the witness stand. Addressing Costello, the judge said: “If you don’t like my ruling, you don’t say ‘jeez’ … You don’t give me side eye, and you don’t roll your eyes.”
Trump’s lawyers are separately considering whether to call a federal elections law witness, Bradley Smith, as they seek to make the case that campaign contribution rules are complex and that Trump did not have the necessary intent to violate the contribution limits when he allegedly falsified business records.
Trump will have to decide whether to testify in his own defense. Legal experts have widely suggested Trump testifying would almost certainly be a mistake, given his track record of making self-incriminating comments.
Merchan still needs to decide whether he will issue jury instructions, and what form they might take. As a result, even if Trump does not testify, closing arguments are not expected to come until Tuesday 28 May.
Judge Juan Merchan said he is reserving decision on the defense’s dismissal request.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche, asking for a dismissal of the charges, argues that court should enter a verdict in favor of the defendant.
If there’s some conspiracy to influence an election … how is keeping a false story from the voters criminal? So it’s a false story, and there’s a decision made to pay off a person who’s spreading a false story. That means a false story isn’t being presented to people voting in New York City.
He adds:
There is no way that the court should let this case go to the jury relying on Mr Cohen’s testimony and I don’t think the people would disagree that without Mr Cohen, there is no case … he not only lied repeatedly in the past, under oath, but he lied in this courtroom.
Judge Juan Merchan says: “So you’re asking me to find Michael Cohen not credible as a matter of law?” Blanche said yes.
“So you want me to take it out of the jury’s hands, and decide before it even gets to this jury … that it shouldn’t even be considered by the jury?” Blanche responded in the affirmative. Merchan said:
You said his lies are irrefutable. You think that he’s going to fool 12 New Yorkers into believing this irrefutable lie?
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is now making an argument for dismissal of the case.
This is normal in cases where, as cases are wrapping, the defendant can ask for the judge to end things in their favor before it gets to the jury. Blanche says:
[Michael Cohen] was paid, first by the trust, for three of the months, and then out of the personal records, the personal bank account, of President Trump. So again, the idea that there would be any sort of intent to defraud, by President Trump, when the invoice is going to the Trump organization, when a check is being generated for him to sign in the White House, there’s no evidence that there’s any idea or any intent by President Trump at that time [to defraud].
“We have none of that,” Blanche said of an intent to defraud.
The other crimes that are purportedly being covered up to call the false business filings – there are no other crimes.
“As the court knows, there has to be something illegal about this effort,” Blanche said of prosecutors’ claim of a conspiracy between Donald Trump, Cohen, and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.
There’s no evidence from any of the witnesses that testified of any criminal intent … the underlying intent that the people are suggesting, FECA, New York state tax fraud, as a matter of law, they should not be allowed to use any of those predicates when at the end of the day, there’s absolutely no evidence that … any of the other purported co-conspirators for this state-law crime had any criminal intent when they engaged in this conduct.
Court is adjourning for the day. Robert Costello is expected to return to the witness stand tomorrow.
Robert Costello, of the meeting with Michael Cohen at the hotel, was asked again about his demeanor. Costello said:
He was suicidal that day and acting very manic.
Costello told prosecutor Hoffinger, “talk into the microphone, please,” not long after Judge Merchan chastised his courtroom comportment. He said:
He was putting on quite a show – and he explained to us, he told us, that two nights before, he was on the roof of the Regency hotel and he was going to jump off and kill himself because he couldn’t handle the pressure of what he saw as an ongoing criminal case coming his way.
Hoffinger appears to be trying to show that Costello has animus against Cohen. “Did you tell the grand jury that you thought he was acting like a drama queen?” Hoffinger said. Costello said:
I couldn’t assess whether these actions from him were genuine or not.
“So, Mr Cohen ultimately chose a different lawyer?”
Eric Trump, who joined his father in the courtroom today, complained that judge Juan Merchan’s treatment of the defense’s witness, Costello, is “truly disgraceful”.
Posting to X, Eric Trump said Merchan “will not allow” Costello to tell his story “as he knows it will be devastating and end this sham trial”.
The judges 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. This is not justice!
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger’s line of questioning is trying to cast Costello as wanting to get closer to Trump and gain him notoriety by representing Cohen.
“Would it be a big win for you and your firm” to retain Michael Cohen? Hoffinger said.
“I would say no,” Costello said, “I didn’t want him.”
But would it be announced on the firm’s website? Costello says: “I don’t know what the firm would do.”
Bove asked Costello: “Did you ever pressure Michael Cohen to do anything?” Costello said “No.”
“In your interactions with Mr Cohen, did you consider him to be a client?” “Of course.”
“Did you care about President Trump’s interests when you were dealing with Michael Cohen?” Costello replied: “My obligation was to Michael Cohen.”
Did he charge Michael Cohen? Yes. Did he pay? “No, he did not.”
Bove ended his questioning of Costello. Prosector Susan Hoffinger is now doing cross-examination.
Bove has resumed his questioning of Costello.
Bove is pointing to an email that Costello wrote to Cohen where he said “I will not pester you.”
Asked to explain, Costello said the email meant he would stop contacting Cohen if he didn’t want to deal with him.
The media have been allowed back inside after judge Juan Merchan ordered to clear the courtroom.
Court officers and Merchan would not let an attorney for the press make an application to argue for the right to stay in the courtroom. Under the law, a representative for the media or even a member of the media is allowed to petition in open court for the opportunity to stay.
Trump’s non lawyer entourage were allowed to stay.