Donald Trump’s legal team have rested in the sixth week of his historic hush-money trial in New York
The jury has been sent home, and the lawyers are now discussing a range of complex legal issues with the judge
Closing arguments will begin on Tuesday, and then the jury will begin their deliberations
Trump is accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims they had sex
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, and denies having any sexual encounter with her
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
We are going straight to our witness, Robert Costello.
Justice Merchan greets him with his usual comments: Welcome back, and please remember you are still under oath.
There's no sign of yesterday's tension in Justice Merchan's greeting. Remember that the judge cleared the courtroom yesterday and admonished Costello for his behaviour on the stand.
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Image source, ReutersDonald Trump's entourage stands behind him while he speaks to the media
Donald Trump sits at his seat at the defence table and makes a stern expression as photographers come in to snap photos of him.
While Trump wears a gold tie, it's blue suits and red ties again for the men in his entourage. Among them is the former president's son, Don Jr.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Donald Trump arrives in the courtroom wearing a gold patterned tie today.
He stops briefly to nod and smile at NBC News journalist Andrea Mitchell, who is seated with the press today, as he walks up to the defence table.
Once again, Donald Trump is trailed by a slew of Republican lawmakers and other VIPs who have attended his trial to support him.
When everyone rises for Justice Merchan, Trump's entourage stays standing longer than the rest of the courtroom. A couple police officers gently gesture that they can now sit down.
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from New York
Image source, ReuThe former president has arrived and is speaking to media in the hallway outside the courtroom.
He begins by talking about inflation, before quickly pivoting to talk about his trial.
Trump says multiple times that it is a "kangaroo court", which he also said on his social media account earlier today.
Trump calls the judge "conflicted".
He says the defence will be "resting" soon, but he won't be "resting".
The lead prosecutors - Joshua Steinglass, Matthew Colangelo, and Susan Hoffinger - enter the courtroom. A couple of them carry boxes of documents.
Hoffinger will pick up cross-examination of our current witness Bob Costello, soon after court begins this morning.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
This could be the final day of actual testimony in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial.
We’re expecting the defence to rest today.
Given some of defence lawyer Todd Blanche’s statements in court this week, it seems unlikely that Trump will take the stand. However, when it comes to the former president, one must always leave room for the unexpected.
We will have the return of Robert Costello, a lawyer who worked with Michael Cohen when the former fixer got in trouble with federal authorities in 2018.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger will continue an aggressive cross-examination.
Costello’s behaviour on the stand yesterday led to one of the most dramatic moments of the trial so far. In a chaotic scene, Justice Merchan cleared the courtroom of press so he could reprimand Costello.
Once the defence is done, it will kick off a series of procedural events that will ultimately lead to closing statements next week.
We’re still unsure of the timing, but at some point, the judge and parties will discuss how Justice Merchan will instruct the jury on the facts of the case and what they can consider during deliberations.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Image source, Getty ImagesRobert Costello pictured last year
Robert Costello is a lawyer who spoke with Michael Cohen when the hush-money story broke in 2018 and helped him through some legal troubles at the time.
Though Cohen never officially retained Costello as his lawyer, he has come up during both direct and cross-examination.
Costello has previously publicly criticised both this trial, and Michael Cohen. He appeared before the grand jury that investigated the former president on March 20, 2023, at the request of Trump's lawyers.
Last Wednesday, Costello testified before a Republican-led congressional panel and called Cohen a liar.
Costello had appeared at the behest of the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, a new panel Republicans created to investigate Trump's claims of political persecution.
Costello told the committee - and repeated on Monday - that Cohen was "acting very manic" in 2018 when the FBI started investigating him and raided his home.
Image source, Reuters/ Jane RosenbergJustice Merchan had stern words with Costello in an extraordinary moment in court on Monday
Robert Costello's first day of testimony was chaotic, to say the least.
It started out when several objections were sustained by Justice Merchan.
When Costello exclaimed "jeez" at one of Justice Merchan's rulings, the judge cleared the court and angrily admonished the witness.
Though the court room was emptied of journalists, the overflow room nearby was packed with people and the microphone broadcast the judge's comments.
He told Costello that if he doesn't like a judge's ruling, he should stay quiet: "You don't make a side-eye, you don't roll your eyes", Justice Merchan ordered.
Then it got more heated. "Are you staring me down?" the judge barked.
Eventually, proper court decorum prevailed.
After this all happened, Costello testified that back in 2018, Michael Cohen would complain about another of Trump's lawyers, Rudy Giuliani.
He also repeated claims that when Cohen started to be investigated by federal authorities, he was "acting very manic".
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Hello from the overflow room at court in New York.
Unlike Monday's early start, Donald Trump's hush-money trial should be underway right on schedule today at 09:30 local time (14:30 BST).
Monday's proceedings ended with a contentious afternoon in the courtroom, after Trump ally Robert Costello took the stand.
He clashed with Justice Merchan, who admonished him for giving him “side eye”.
We’ll hear more from him on the stand shortly when the defence is expected to wrap up its case.
We're closing our live coverage for today, but we'll be back tomorrow for what is likely to be the final day of testimony in this trial.
We're expecting Robert Costello to be back on the stand - Susan Hoffinger said her cross-examination should only take about 45 minutes.
This page was edited by Brandon Livesay, Phil McCausland and Tiffany Wertheimer. We had Madeline Halpert, Kayla Epstein and Nada Tawfik reporting from court.
You can read our full story on today's drama here.
See you tomorrow!
It's been an interesting - and at times dramatic - day in court.
Here's some of what we heard:
Brandon Livesay
Reporting from New York
After a long and drama-filled day, Donald Trump has walked out of the courtroom and into the hallway where a series of cameras await him.
His lawyer Todd Blanche stands next to him and Trump begins to speak.
He immediately brings up the moment between the judge and witness Robert Costello, where Justice Merchan cleared the courtroom of media and reprimanded Costello for his behaviour on the stand.
Trump says Justice Merchan is a "tyrant", and that he has "never seen anything like it".
He then says he hopes the motion to dismiss the case goes through.
Then, similar to what he has done for the past few statements after court has wrapped for the day, Trump reads quotes from various people who agree with his views on the trial.
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
With that, court is over after a dramatic day in which we saw Justice Merchan spar with Robert Costello - a witness for the defence.
Prosecutors will finish their cross-examination of Costello when court resumes tomorrow at 9:30 local time (14:30 BST).
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Prosecutors are now making their points after the defence called for the case to be tossed out.
They argue that "weeks and weeks" of testimony that were corroborated by bank records and other evidence prove that Donald Trump and co-conspirators plotted to unlawfully influence the 2016 election with the hush-money payment and reimbursement scheme.
Justice Merchan says he'll share his decision later.
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Todd Blanche has been talking for several minutes now.
He says Donald Trump, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Michael Cohen did not plan a "catch-and-kill scheme".
And he continues to object to the idea that Trump falsified business records with intent to commit another crime.
Lastly, he says, without Cohen, there is no case.
But, he says, there is no way the case should go to the jury relying on the testimony of Cohen.
"We put on irrefutable proof" that Cohen was inconsistent in his testimony, Blanche says.
Merchan appears skeptical.
“You said that his [Cohen's] lies are irrefutable. Do you think he’s going to fool 12 New Yorkers into this lie?” he asks.
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Image source, Getty ImagesWe’re ending the day with a request from defence lawyer Todd Blanche, who asks that the case be dismissed.
“There’s absolutely no evidence that the filings were false, the business records were not false,” he says of the reimbursement to Michael Cohen for the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.
“There’s no evidence that there was any idea or any intent of President Trump to mislead or to hide or to falsify the business records,” he says to the judge.
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
After another short conference at the bench, Justice Merchan has excused the jurors for the day.
It was without a doubt a chaotic afternoon in court.
Susan Hoffinger estimates she has another 45 minutes or so of questioning of Bob Costello tomorrow morning.
Justice Merchan asks the defense if they will rest, which they estimate they might.
Prosecutors have also asked Justice Merchan to instruct Robert Costello to avoid contact with Donald Trump, but the judge says he generally does not do that.
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
We're in the midst of a rapid-fire exchange between Susan Hoffinger and Robert Costello.
Hoffinger asks Costello whether Cohen was visibly shaken up that day in 2018 when federal authorities raided his home.
Costello replies that Cohen was "acting very manic".
Hoffinger asks him how long he's been a defence attorney, to which he replies about 40 or 50 years.
So wouldn't you understand, she asks, how traumatic it can be for someone to go through such an experience?
Costello said he could.
“But you thought he was being a drama queen? Didn’t you?” Hoffinger asks sharply.
Costello says Cohen was “putting on quite a show”.
Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York
Image source, Getty ImagesA file photo of Robert Costello from 2023
Robert Costello, a lawyer who gave Michael Cohen legal advice, was just scolded by Justice Merchan.
So here is a quick reminder who Costello is and why he is testifying for the defence.
A former federal prosecutor who would later become a defence lawyer, Costello allegedly worked as a back channel between Trump and his ex-fixer - though Cohen never retained him as an attorney.
Costello was closely tied with Rudy Giuliani, and Cohen has alleged that he gained the impression that his legal adviser was more concerned with Trump's desires than Cohen's.
The two men had a falling out thereafter, but Costello has not disappeared in the interim.
He has publicly criticised both this trial and Cohen in the intervening years, and he appeared before the grand jury that investigated the former president in this case at the request of Trump's lawyers.
Last week, Costello told a Republican-controlled congressional panel that "virtually every statement he (Cohen) made about me was another lie", referring to the ex-fixer's testimony.
In a separate case, Costello was sued by Hunter Biden - President Joe Biden's son - who alleged that Costello and Giuliani "dedicated an extraordinary amount of time and energy toward looking for, hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen."
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
As the prosecution's Susan Hoffinger questions Robert Costello aggressively, she tries to get him to concede that he wanted to land Michael Cohen as a client.
Costello says he “didn’t want” Cohen as a client.
Hoffinger asks him whether representing Cohen, a personal lawyer to the president, would be considered a good case for his firm.
Costello concedes that yes, it would be.
Hoffinger presses Costello about whether he was trying to get closer to Trump by representing Cohen.
Costello denies this.