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For every week and a half, MAGA world had been clamoring for Bob Costello to testify, and final Monday, he lastly did. I sensed from the beginning that his conceitedness left a poor impression on jurors, even when the decide despatched them out of the courtroom earlier than tongue-lashing him. But when Costello was hardly a web plus on Monday, he wasn’t but a severe legal responsibility to Trump because the trial moved towards its conclusion.
That may change on Tuesday, Might 21, with Trump’s disastrous resolution to name Costello as his solely actual witness. It blew up in his face like a mob hit gone unhealthy.
Costello deliberate to proceed testifying that Cohen had “performed us” by not signing a retainer settlement to be represented by Costello and his legislation accomplice, Jeff Citron. This wasn’t particularly related past suggesting that possibly Cohen cheated him, however I suppose one may argue it was one other brick within the Cohen-can’t-be-trusted edifice that’s the basis of Trump’s protection.
Sadly for Costello and Trump, it didn’t play out that method. Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger—who was chargeable for the 14-year-old prankster setback—will probably be extensively criticized as t the goat if there’s an acquittal or hung jury. But when the D.A.’s Workplace wins a conviction, her brisk and lethal cross-examination of Costello will probably be taught in legislation faculties as one of many G.O.A.T. To alter species for a second, Hoffinger has developed from the awkward duckling into the swish swan of this trial.
I noticed that till now, I’ve largely seen her from the again, the place her curly black hair obscured her. Reporters are very acquainted with the protection group’s look and demeanor as a result of the Orange Menace’s legal professionals and sycophants stroll dutifully behind him each time he saunters up or down the middle aisle—normally eight occasions a day.
The prosecutors, against this, linger by the protection tables and exit by a aspect door far to the entrance. So past distant photographs on the grainy displays and some glances when she returned from sidebar conferences, I needed to look Hoffinger up on-line for a more in-depth view of the face the jury sees almost every single day. She is fiftysomething and appears like your poised and businesslike pal from the workplace.
On Monday afternoon, Hoffinger’s cross had appeared commonplace. She established that Costello was dodgy when he mentioned he wasn’t anxious for Cohen to rent him. And she or he proved that Cohen had gone with a distinct lawyer, Man Petrillo, a lot sooner than Costello indicated on direct—undercutting the white-haired legal professional’s declare that Cohen was a foul man for stringing him alongside.
Costello claimed in an e-mail that he didn’t need “to pester” Cohen about signing a retainer settlement, however that’s precisely what he was doing. “Please stop contacting me as you don’t and haven’t represented me on this or every other matter,” Cohen lastly wrote him after ignoring a lot of his makes an attempt to be in contact.
Essentially the most intriguing second had come when Hoffinger requested Costello about what he had described as Cohen’s “manic” and “suicidal” conduct on the April 17, 2018, assembly on the Regency, the one time they ever met.
Immediately, Costello barked at Hoffinger as if he was addressing an intern:
“Discuss into the microphone, please.”
Had Costello realized nothing from the decide’s smackdown earlier that day? As Costello knew completely nicely, it’s for the decide, not the witness, to say, “Strike it” or “Discuss into the microphone, please.”
The jurors knew that, too. Throughout Costello’s mic remark, I used to be clacking away on my laptop computer and didn’t peer on the jury field, however a number of reporters noticed two jurors flip of their seats and take a look at one another in shock as if to say, What the hell was that?
The remainder of us had no problem comprehending what it was: Costello was nonetheless a political witness whose motive was impressing Trump by trashing Cohen and at the very least making an attempt to intimidate prosecutors. Trump’s folly is to imagine such conduct may let him beat the rap. MAGA surrogates might or might not assist him exterior the courthouse, however they indisputably damage him right here.
As Hoffinger coolly mentioned, “I’m sorry,” and resumed her questioning, she turned barely to her proper, and I may see a small wry smile directed on the jury.
It had been a protracted, tumultuous day, and Hoffinger’s cross was minimize quick to let the jury go house at 5:00 p.m. She advised the decide she would resume for only a half hour extra on Tuesday morning.
So right here she was once more, shiny and early, and out of the blue, her cross was working superbly. Cohen had testified that in mid-2018, it steadily turned clear that he wanted a distinct lawyer as a result of Trump had assigned Giuliani and Costello to make sure he didn’t spill his guts to the feds. Now Hoffinger bought Costello to say once more that no, after all, he had nothing like that in thoughts. He claimed again and again that he didn’t even need Cohen as a shopper.
Like a pleasing executioner, Hoffinger produced e-mail after e-mail displaying Costello to be a liar, and his lies have been extra menacing than Cohen’s.
Costello had repeatedly testified that he didn’t play up his connection to Giuliani when he and his legislation accomplice met Cohen on the Regency. Hoffinger produced an e-mail wherein Costello wrote to Cohen two days after that Regency assembly, “I advised you [of] my relationship with Rudy, which might be very, very helpful for you.” Then he emailed Citron, his legislation accomplice, that Cohen could be good to rent him “due to my connection to Rudy Giuliani, which I discussed to him in our assembly.”
In one other e-mail, Costello wrote to Citron, “Our subject is to get Cohen on the proper web page with out giving him the looks that we’re following directions from Giuliani or the president.”
If I have been on the jury, I’d be considering: Cohen ought to have run away from these witness-tampering thugs a lot ahead of he did.
On direct, Costello had arrogantly denied that he sought to open a “backchannel” from Rudy to Cohen and attributed that to Cohen. The emails “communicate for themselves,” Costello mentioned.
Now Hoffinger, with a fair tone that contrasted nicely with Blanche’s shouting when he thought he had nailed Cohen on the 14-year-old prank caller, produced an e-mail wherein Costello reported that Giuliani mentioned, “Thanks for opening this again channel of communication and requested me to communicate.” In one other, Costello wrote that Giuliani was “thrilled and mentioned this might not be a greater scenario for the President otherwise you.”
Hoffinger: “And the e-mail speaks for itself; proper, sir?” Ouch. However she wasn’t carried out but.
Hoffinger supplied into proof an e-mail wherein Costello writes to his legislation accomplice, “He [Cohen] continues to sluggish play us and the President. Is he completely nuts??? I’m in a golf match tomorrow early and once more on Sunday. What ought to I say to this asshole? He’s enjoying with probably the most highly effective man on the planet.”
Immediately, Tom Hagen had grow to be Luca Brasi. And the thug who wrote this e-mail had grow to be an ideal match for the person we have been taking a look at on the stand.
Hoffinger moved in for the kill: “Now, that e-mail definitely speaks for itself; does it not, Mr. Costello?”
“Sure, it does,” Costello replied, useless man sitting.
“You had misplaced management of Michael Cohen for President Trump,” Hoffinger concluded. “Completely not,” Costello replied, mendacity once more. It was exhausting to think about jurors believing him.
Hoffinger ended her eviscerating cross by pointing to Costello’s testimony 5 days earlier on Capitol Hill.
“It was an effort by you, wasn’t it, to attempt to intimidate Michael Cohen whereas he was testifying right here. Isn’t that appropriate?”
“I used to be intimidating him?” Costello snapped as if he felt insulted for having been caught utilizing the MAGA playbook. “That’s ridiculous.”
Hoffinger: “Nothing additional.”
On re-direct, Emil Bove tried and failed to color Cohen as a sleazy shopper who was utilizing Costello’s authorized counsel with out paying for it. Costello recalled once more that he emailed his son two days after the April 18 Regency assembly to brag {that a} senior Trump aide—Cohen—had advised him, “I’m on the group.” He testified {that a} couple weeks later—on Might 3—Jeff Citron gave Cohen a draft retainer settlement that he put in his briefcase.
On re-cross, Hoffinger, who like most good litigators believes less-is-more, took lower than a minute to make clear that on the time Cohen was supposedly “on the group,” he was not. He had a retainer settlement dated April 22 that he by no means signed, and he by no means paid Costello a nickel. Costello’s story didn’t fly.
With that, Hoffinger sat down, and Costello left the stand.
As an alternative of discrediting Cohen, Costello had basically grow to be a witness towards Trump by displaying that Cohen lied to him for a superb cause—to verify the president of the US and the previous mayor of New York Metropolis didn’t fuck with him from the Oval Workplace. La Casa Blanca meets La Cosa Nostra.
Nevertheless it turned out Rudy and Bob botched the job of maintaining Cohen in Trump’s Ravenite Social Membership. I considered our HBO documentary about Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill. We reference the bestseller Jimmy wrote within the Nineteen Sixties: The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.
After the protection rested, Trump went out into the corridor and raged for 11 minutes. I’m not going to report a lot about it as a result of it was the identical previous crap he’s slung a few occasions a day for 5 weeks from behind the now-familiar bicycle rack limitations.
These of us with golden tickets nearly by no means see this reside as a result of we’re in lockdown contained in the courtroom till he leaves the hallway. However right this moment, we have been in line for the Fifteenth-floor steel detectors after lunch, and he got here out out of the blue. So regardless that we have been stopped by safety 100 ft down the corridor and across the nook, we may hear him whining.
After he completed his diatribe towards Biden, Trump began in on how the D.A., the decide, and the Democrats are turning the US right into a “banana republic” and a “fascist” state. This man’s tiresome projection is aware of no bounds. However I additionally heard one thing I hadn’t heard earlier than. He known as the trial “a really severe scenario.” Is he scared he may lose? Possibly so. As he turned to go away, he was requested by the press pool: “Are you nervous about conviction?” “Why didn’t you’re taking the stand?”
Trump didn’t reply both query. Leaving court docket for the afternoon break and on the finish of the day, he nonetheless had that Alpha Male swagger, however he appeared troubled as if the considered a while in an ankle bracelet had crossed his thoughts.
***
At lunch, I spoke to a number of the fortunate individuals who bought into the courtroom as spectators. An inexpensive housing advocate from Idaho flew in from Cancun, the place she was vacationing, and bought in line at 6 p.m. Sunday night time on the courthouse. She stayed up all night time to snag one of many four-to-six seats for spectators within the courtroom. One other spectator, a pupil at Clark College, slept in a pal’s automobile.
Information retailers can pay to chop in line to acquire the extra plentiful seats within the overflow room, the place it’s first come, first served every morning for the press passes. A enterprise known as “Similar Ole Line Dudes,” which has a near-monopoly on line-sitting in New York, does a good quantity of enterprise with the press. For the spectator line, the place about 20 folks altogether will get in, the “line dudes” cost $300-$500, relying on the enchantment of the day’s testimony.
Just a few road folks need in on the motion, and there was friction. For days, John McIntosh, a bushy-bearded entrepreneur from Angelica, New York, has slept on a bench within the line.
John buys and sells tickets with a couple of homeless males and migrants who communicate no English, and he thinks that after ready in line for a lot of hours, they’ve gotten the shaft from court docket police. They stayed out all night time and bought overflow tickets. However after they entered the huge courthouse in search a WC as a substitute of promoting their passes exterior, they have been ejected, and the passes they’d waited so lengthy to acquire have been confiscated. John is pro-Trump and hopes to boost sufficient cash to run for the Senate from New York.
Standing in my privileged golden ticket line, the place we’re all assured seats within the courtroom, I stored listening to rumors that Jimmy Carter may die earlier than a verdict, which might be unhappy for me personally (I spent 5 years researching my bio) and pull me away from the trial to assist cowl his funeral for MSNBC. However my sources in Plains, Georgia, mentioned he was mainly advantageous. The indefatigable Andrea Mitchell, who was big-footing right this moment, jogged my memory that Jerry Rafshoon, one in all Carter’s prime guys, mentioned Carter was so aggressive he would wish to keep alive till October 1 (his birthday) so he might be the primary president to reside to 100. Is smart to me.
Again within the courtroom after lunch, the jury was gone, and its presence wouldn’t be required for a full week. The decide and the events held what’s known as a “cost convention” to find out what could be within the decide’s extraordinarily essential directions to the jury.
Reporters in contrast overlaying this convention to having your article edited with out a copy of the story or taking a Bible research class with out the Bible. The submissions to the court docket from each side weren’t obtainable to the press. Nor did we’ve got the official definitions of varied authorized ideas useful.
Decide Merchan dominated on a few of these questions within the second and held again on others that we received’t find out about till he addresses the jury subsequent Wednesday morning. We do know that he has struck from the jury cost the phrase “eleemosynary” as a result of he finds it unpronounceable. It is going to be changed by “charitable.”
The decide confirmed his equity by ruling at occasions for both sides, although the prosecution received extra usually—partly as a result of the protection made some claims (particularly on advice-of-counsel parts) that attempted Merchan’s persistence. And Merchan dominated that whereas unanimity was required for acquittal or conviction, it was not needed for every factor of the case. So it wouldn’t matter if, say, the jury was break up on how the directions on tax fraud utilized to this case.
One still-unresolved dispute entails using the phrase “willfully.” The protection had earlier moved that the phrase “willfully” be used to instruct the jury on the extent of intent the prosecution should present for Trump’s violations of marketing campaign finance legal guidelines. As my new mates Norman Eisen and Adam Klasfeld, two of the neatest guys within the courtroom, level out in Simply Safety, establishing a number of ranges of intent on Trump’s half is crucial to proving the case: “A willful violation would require the potential violator to behave with ‘information that [one’s] conduct was illegal.’”
On the tax offenses, there’s no remaining dispute over “willfulness”; prosecutors must show it. However the Weisselberg “grossing up” doc offers them rather a lot to work with.
In sum, Eisen and Klasfeld write:
The intent parts are complicated. The jury should decide not solely that Trump had an intent to defraud but additionally that this intent included an intent to commit one other crime or to help or conceal the fee of one other crime. The DA, after all, wants to satisfy the burden of proof past an inexpensive doubt, so the protection will underscore that the jury want solely discover a morsel of doubt to acquit. The Folks will argue they’ve eradicated any such scintilla.
Eisen and Klasfeld count on the prosecution’s closing argument “to heart on three predominant disputed points when it comes to proving the weather of the crimes: (1) Have been the data false? (2) Did Trump make the false entries — or trigger them to be made? And (3) Did Trump have the required intent to defraud, together with the intent to commit or conceal both a marketing campaign finance or election violation or a tax one?” There’s plenty of proof that the reply is “sure” to all three.
The protection will argue in closing that this all occurred a very long time in the past, that there’s nothing unlawful about NDAs or making an attempt to affect an election, that Trump thought he was paying Cohen for authorized companies, and that Cohen has no credibility. Cheap doubt in all places, Trump’s group will say.
After court docket, Trump went to the pen within the hallway and mentioned: “The decide hates Donald Trump.” Then he added one thing paying homage to when he attacked Gonzalo Curiel, the decide within the Trump College fraud case, insisting in 2015 that his “Mexican heritage” posed “an inherent battle of curiosity.” Now, he was going after Merchan for emigrating from Colombia as a baby: “Simply have a look. Check out him. Check out the place he comes from.”
Decide Aileen Cannon was additionally born in Colombia, however Trump will attempt to put her on the Supreme Court docket if she will squelch the Mar-a-Lago paperwork case. In the meantime, all of the Republican politicians who attacked him after he slimed Decide Curiel due to his race are silent. That speaks even louder than Trump.
On Friday, in a small sideshow win for the prosecution, Merchan dominated after a probe that “there was no coordinated, joint investigation being carried out by the New York County District Legal professional’s Workplace and… SDNY.” In different phrases, he discovered no proof to assist Trump’s declare that Biden and his Justice Division have been behind this case. In any case of their time-consuming motions about needing tons of of 1000’s of paperwork, Trump’s legal professionals didn’t find yourself utilizing a single one from the Southern District of New York.
Let the closing arguments start!!
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