Cohen critic may testify
Onetime legal adviser likely to attack star witness against Trump
A Manhattan grand jury that is expected to vote soon on whether to indict Donald Trump may hear testimony Monday attacking the prosecution’s star witness, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The testimony would come from a lawyer, Robert Costello, who would appear at the request of Trump’s lawyers, the people said. Costello was once a legal adviser to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, who has been a key witness for the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Costello and Cohen had a falling out, and Costello would appear solely to undermine Cohen’s credibility, the people said.
Under New York law, a person who is expected to be indicted can request that a witness appear on his or her behalf. Trump’s lawyers have asked that Costello testify, but the final decision rests with the grand jury; it is unclear whether jurors have made a decision. The grand jury has been hearing evidence about the former president’s involvement in a hush money payment to a porn star.
Costello’s appearance would come soon after Cohen concluded his own grand jury testimony. If Costello testifies, there is also a chance that Cohen will be asked to return to rebut some of Costello’s assertions.
A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment, as did Costello. A lawyer for Cohen, Lanny Davis, declined to comment.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, is expected to seek an indictment of Trump as soon as this week. There have been several signals that charges may be imminent: Prosecutors gave Trump an opportunity to testify, a right given to people who will soon face indictment. They have now questioned nearly every major player in the hush money saga in front of the grand jury.
Cohen made the $130,000 hush money payment to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, to bury her story of an affair with Trump.
The payment came in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, and Trump subsequently reimbursed Cohen. Prosecutors are expected to accuse Trump of
▶
overseeing the false recording of the reimbursements in his company’s internal records. The records falsely stated that the payments to Cohen were for “legal expenses.”
Trump has denied all wrongdoing, as well as having had an affair with Daniels, and has blasted the investigation as politically motivated. He has also called Bragg, the first Black person to serve as the district attorney, a “racist.”
Costello’s appearance in the grand jury Monday would likely kick off a string of attacks from Trump’s lawyers on Cohen’s credibility.
If the case goes to trial, they are expected to highlight that Cohen himself pleaded guilty to federal crimes in 2018 stemming from the hush money payment, and to bring up other episodes from the former fixer’s personal history.
But prosecutors may counter that Cohen was lying about the hush money payment on Trump’s behalf, and has been consistent in the telling of his story in recent years.
Costello is likely to argue that Cohen can’t be trusted. In 2018, as Cohen was facing the federal investigation into the hush money, a mutual friend introduced the two men. Costello offered to represent Cohen, and they spent hours meeting and speaking by phone.
As a Republican lawyer with ties to Trump’s legal team, Costello offered to serve as a bridge between Cohen and the president’s lawyers. At one point, Costello contacted one of Trump’s lawyers to ask if the president might pardon Cohen.
But the pardon never came, and Cohen never formally retained Costello. Cohen later waived their attorney-client privilege, Costello has said.
Their relationship worsened as Cohen broke from Trump, and became one of his primary antagonists.
“We will not be involved in that journey,” Costello wrote Cohen in a 2018 email, adding that his law firm “will be sending you a bill.” When it came, Cohen refused to pay.