Lawyer tries to discredit Michael Cohen in Trump grand jury investigation

A former legal adviser to Michael Cohen, a key witness in the Manhattan grand jury investigation into former President Donald Trump, tried on Monday to discredit Cohen as a liar in a “revenge tour.”

Robert Costello, who appeared before the grand jury at the request of Trump’s lawyers, told reporters after his testimony that Cohen said things “directly contradicting what he told us.”

Costello described Cohen as being in a “manic state” when they first met at Cohen’s request in April 2018. By that time, federal agents had already raided Cohen’s home and office as part of a number of investigations, including an investigation into the case. a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.

“He talked to us, pacing back and forth like a wild tiger in a cage,” Costello said. “He was really exhausted. He looked like he hadn’t slept in three, four, five days. And he just suddenly stopped in the middle of a conversation about something, pointed at us and said: “I want the guys, you know, I will do whatever it takes, I will never spend a day in prison.” He must have said it about 20 times.

“Well, he went to jail,” Costello continued. “And now he’s on a revenge tour.” Cohen was sentenced to 3 years, which he partially served in home confinement.

“If Bob Costello’s comments were more fantastic, he would be a best-selling author,” Cohen told CBS News Monday night. “It’s important to note that I’m not the one who slept with Stormi. I stated many years ago, and remain consistent, that the payment was made at the direction of, in coordination with, and on behalf of Donald Trump. Truth is truth. and documents in the possession of DANY demonstrate this. Again, Bob works for Rudy Giuliani, which should explain his lack of truth.”

As the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation gathered momentum, Cohen met with investigators on numerous occasions and spent two days testifying before a grand jury about Trump’s alleged role in the payments, including possible campaign finance violations and falsified business documents.

Costello said that Cohen told him that he had been approached by Daniels’ lawyer about a potential lawsuit. Daniels claimed she had sex with Trump in 2006, which he denies.

“So Michael Cohen decided on his own — so he told us himself — to see if he could take care of it,” Costello said. “So he was sitting with lawyer Stormy Daniels. They agreed to a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement.”

Costello said he asked Cohen if he took the money from his own account or if it was Trump’s money, and Cohen told him it was from a home equity line of credit.

“I said, ‘Why would you do that?'” Costello said of their conversation. “He said, ‘Because I wanted to keep it a secret, even a secret from my own wife.’

Cohen claimed that Trump authorized the payment to Daniels to buy her silence during the 2016 campaign, and that the Trump organization reimbursed him for the payment.

“He’s completely unreliable,” Costello said.

Costello said he gave the Manhattan District Attorney and Trump’s attorneys five packets of materials containing hundreds of emails between Cohen and his law firm from 2018 to 2019. He urged the district attorney to submit all documents to a grand jury rather than a select few.

“Let them see who Michael Cohen is,” he said.

– Graham Cates contributed to this report.

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