Blow to the prosecutor's star witness: Michael Cohen's former lawyer assures that his former client confessed to him that he had nothing against Trump
Robert Costello gave testimony before the House Judiciary Committee and released a lot of information that undermines the credibility of Alvin Bragg's case in Manhattan.
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former lawyer, has been introduced in Manhattan as the star witness in the criminal trial accusing Donald Trump of falsifying business records. However, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the "instrumentalization of the federal government," in which one of the participants trashed Cohen's credibility.
Robert Costello, who at the time was Cohen's lawyer, revealed conversations he had with his then-client about Trump.
"During the period April 2018 to July 2018, I represented Michael Cohen today I can talk to you about what Michael Cohen told my law partner because Michael Cohen waved the attorney CL privilege at the request of the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York," he began, although he had already presented the legislators with written testimony.
He went on to say that Cohen is cooperating with the Prosecutor's Office to "reduce his sentence" since he "thought it might be smart to go to the U.S. Attorney's office and lie."
"The story he told yesterday was that Rudy Giuliani and I were somehow conspiring to try and keep him quiet to try and keep him from flipping that's the term we use in the trade for cooperating. That's ridiculous," he added.
"I swear to God Bob, I have nothing on Donald Trump"
The most viral moment of the hearing was when Costello revealed a conversation he had with Cohen, in which he confessed to having "nothing on Donald Trump," something his former client would have repeated to him about "10 or 20 times."
The lawyer highlighted that when Cohen was offered to involve Trump judicially to somehow reduce his legal problems, Cohen repeatedly stated that he had nothing against the magnate.
In addition, Costello said that Cohen never believed Stormy Daniels' story and that he paid her out of his own pocket, completely contradicting the court case against Trump. Although he never considered Daniels' story true, Cohen thought it could be harmful to the Trump family, especially Melania Trump, so he decided to "take care of this on my own."
"No one has heard this side of the equation"
So, where did Cohen get the money to pay Daniels? According to Costello, his then-client claimed to have taken out a HELOC loan against his property and did not tell anyone about its origin.
As for Trump, he was not aware of Cohen's activities regarding Daniels, something "very different from what he told the jury. No one has heard this side of the equation," Costello said.
In the lawyer's eyes, Cohen "changed his story he turned around and he's the only one who can who can do that you have to believe Michael Cohen in order to convict Donald Trump if there's actually a crime. There which there isn't but that's an issue for an appellate court."