Saint James Hartline
@JamesHartline
IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Convicted fraudster Michael Cohen once swore Trump wasn’t involved in Stormy Daniels payment, his ex-attorney testifies. Costello, a former SDNY prosecutor, testified before the House Weaponization Committee.
A lawyer who formerly advised Michael Cohen claims Cohen said Trump had nothing to do with a hush money payment made to porn performer Stormy Daniels and that Cohen took care of the arrangement himself.
Robert Costello, an attorney who advised Cohen after Cohen was hit with federal charges in 2018, testified before the House Weaponization Committee on Capitol Hill. Costello, a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, explained he is able to discuss his interactions with Cohen because he “waived the attorney-client privilege and the duty of loyalty of a lawyer to a client.”
Costello testified before the grand jury for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump. Costello testified in 2023, just weeks before Bragg’s grand jury indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Costello recalled an interaction with Cohen in 2018, during which he said Cohen was “suicidal and desperately looking for an escape route” after being indicted.
“I advised him that the SDNY thought he had committed crimes and that he might have evidence they could use for a prosecution of Donald Trump,” Costello testified Wednesday. “I explained to Cohen how he was not the target of the investigation but was a bump in the road and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office would run over him if it led them to Donald Trump.”
Costello testified that he explained to Cohen that if he had “truthful information that would implicate Trump, I could get him out his legal trouble by the end of the week — if he cooperated against Trump.”
“I emphasized that any information Cohen could give would have to be truthful, otherwise it was useless,” Costello testified, saying he did this “numerous times” during the meeting.
“Each time, Cohen said to me, ‘I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,’” Costello recalled Cohen saying. “Cohen must have said this at least ten times.”
During the conversation, Costello said, Cohen told him he would do “whatever” he had to do to not spend even one day in prison.
Costello states Cohen was “seriously contemplating jumping off” the roof of the New York City Regency Hotel because he “couldn’t handle the pressure of the upcoming criminal case.”
Costello said he pressed Cohen to reconsider.
“Isn’t it easier to cooperate against Donald Trump if you have truthful information, than it is to kill yourself?” he asked.
Costello also testified that he was involved in a non-disclosure agreement with adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Costello said Cohen told him he was approached by her attorney, who said she would allege she had a sexual encounter with Trump unless Trump was willing to “buy her silence.” Costello said Cohen “decided that while he didn’t believe the allegation, he thought the story would be embarrassing for Trump, and especially for Melania, so he decided to take care of it himself.”
Costello testified that Cohen’s “motivation for this became obvious” amid Cohen’s alleged desire to work in the Trump administration after the 2016 election.
Costello testified Cohen thought Trump would make him attorney general “or at least chief of staff to the president.”
“Now, after going to jail, Michael Cohen is on a revenge tour because he blames Donald Trump for the loss of his law license and the fact that he did go to jail,” Costello said. “The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York saw this and acted properly. The Manhattan District Attorney took a different route to become famous and to ‘get’ Trump.”
Costello said Cohen is “simply not a credible man,” and claimed Cohen “lies when he thinks it is to his own advantage but tells the truth when it is to Michael Cohen’s own advantage.”
Cohen was a lawyer of minimal skills who originally got his job with the Trump Organization because Trump thought that hiring him was a way to avoid paying a large legal bill from the firm that Cohen then worked for. Cohen was a butt of jokes in the Trump Organization. He considered himself a Mr. Fixit. His fellow employees said that Cohen only fixed items after he first broke them. Cohen was basically an errand boy with a law degree, a man who had delusions of adequacy. Costello’s testimony would be devastating as to Cohen’s credibility and I hope that Trump’s attorneys plan to call him during their portion of the case.
It is my understanding that the payment of hush money in the manner Trump is accused of is perfectly legal. Is my understanding correct?
Completely legal. They are called non disclosure agreements. They are unenforceable without consideration, almost always money, being paid to the person agreeing to be bound by the non disclosure agreement.
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