Michael Cohen: Donald Trump former attorney and star witness in Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan. Photo Credit: AP
Michael Cohen has been testifying before a Manhattan court that is trying former president Donald Trump on crimes related to falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to pkrnography star Stormy Daniels. Cohen’s testimony has often been seen as less than credible owing to his history of lying to Congress and other financial crimes unrelated to Trump, for which he was convicted. One of those who disagree with Cohen’s testimony is an attorney who advised the ex convict during his legal battle with federal prosecutors in 2018. Daniels had alleged that Trump had an affair with her after a golf tournament in 2006. Mr. Trump was married at the time. His testimony is being seen as a fight for survival by Mr. Cohen to stay out of prison after his conviction and sentencing to a federal prison in 2018. Since then, prosecutors seeking to imprison Mr. Trump have found an ex-close ally of the former president. Mr. Cohen served as Trump’s personal attorney for a decade and prides himself on being the former president’s “fixer.”
At a testimony before the House Weaponization Committee on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, Robert Costello, an attorney who advised Cohen after Cohen’s federal charges in 2018, said the former Trump attorney told him that Trump had nothing to do with the hush money he paid to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and that he handled it all by himself.
Costello, a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, said he recalled a conversation with Cohen in 2018 when Cohen was “suicidal and desperately looking for an escape route” following his indictment.
“I advised him that the SDNY thought he had committed crimes and that he might have evidence they could use for a prosecution of President Trump,” Costello said during his Wednesday testimony. “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.”
The former prosecutor noted that he explained to Cohen that if he had “truthful information that would implicate Donald Trump, I could get him out of his legal trouble by the end of the week—if he cooperated against Donald Trump.”
“I emphasized that any information Cohen could give would have to be truthful; otherwise, it was useless,” and that he did this “numerous times” during their first meeting.
According to Costello, “each time, Cohen said to me, ‘I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,’”
“Cohen must have said this at least ten times because I kept coming back to it from different approaches.”
Costello also recalled Cohen telling him he would do “whatever” he had to do to not spend even one day in prison.
Costello also recalled a phone conversation with Cohen days earlier, in which the former Trump attorney said he 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 advised Cohen to reconsider such a grave option, saying, “Isn’t it easier to cooperate against Donald Trump if you have truthful information than it is to kill yourself?”
Costello also said Cohen told him pornography star Stormy Daniels” attorney approached him and said she would allege she had a sexual affair with Trump under Trump was willing to “buy her silence.”
On Wednesday, 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.”
The former prosecutor said Cohen’s “motivation for this became obvious” amid Cohen’s alleged desire to work in the Trump administration after the 2016 election.
Costello noted that Cohen thought Trump would consider him for the role of attorney general “or at least chief of staff to the president.”
“Cohen then explained that, for that reason, he negotiated the sum of $130,000 in exchange for the NDA. When asked if Trump had any knowledge of this, Cohen told me no. When asked whether Cohen got the $130,000 from Trump or any Trump entity or friend, Cohen again said no,” Costello said during his testimony.
“When asked if this was from Cohen’s own money, Cohen said no. He was asked where, then, he got the money, and Cohen explained that he took out a HELOC loan because he didn’t want anybody to know where the money came from.”
Costello also said Cohen told him he didn’t want his wife to know about the NDA transaction.
In a counter-testimony, Cohen explained that his refusal to inform Costello about Trump’s knowledge of the NDA was because he was still loyal to Trump, adding that he “believed, based upon all of our conversations, that [Costello] would immediately run back to Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani and that communication would be divulged to President Trump.”
According to Costello, “the point” of his testimony is that “when Michael Cohen was presented with the opportunity to implicate Donald Trump in exchange for eliminating his own enormous legal problems, he repeatedly said he had nothing truthful on Donald Trump.”
“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.”
“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 testified.
Costello said Cohen was not a “credible man” and that the former Trump “fixer” “lies when he thinks it is to his own advantage but tells the truth when it is to Michael Cohen’s own advantage.”