Trump's Criminal trial nears end as defence team rests

Summary

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

Live Reporting

Edited by Brandon Livesay, Phil McCausland and Tiffany Wertheimer

Defence finishes questioning Costellopublished at 21:35 British Summer Time 20 May
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
Sketch of Robert Costello
Emil Bove wraps up his questions by asking Robert Costello if he's commented publicly on the case (he has), and to confirm that he testified to Congress about Cohen while this trial was going on.
He leaves it at that, and Susan Hoffinger of the prosecutor's office is ready to cross-examine him.
Her tone is a little more aggressive than usual with this particular witness. She begins by asking him to go over how he met Cohen.
Cohen would complain about Rudy Giuliani, Costello sayspublished at 21:34 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
We are now back to some far more staid testimony: call records.
We're seeing a series of calls between Robert Costello and Michael Cohen from April 2018.
Costello testifies that at the time, Cohen was complaining about another one of Trump's lawyers, Rudy Giuliani.
Then defence lawyer Emil Bove moves on to ask, “Did you ever put any pressure on Michael Cohen to do anything?”
"No," Costello replies.
Costello confirms that he considered Cohen a client at the time - though they did not have an official engagement letter.
Members of the public laugh as courtroom camera flicks onpublished at 21:18 British Summer Time 20 May
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Here in the overflow room, the cameras have been turned back on.
Robert Costello has his face set in something of a grimace.
In response, there are some laughs from members of the public who are watching here today.
Just a reminder that Costello is a lawyer who spoke with Michael Cohen when the hush money story broke in 2018 and helped him with some legal troubles.
Costello has previously criticised this trial, and Cohen. And just last Wednesday, he testified before a congressional panel and called Cohen a liar.
'Clear the courtroom': Inside the trial's most tense momentpublished at 21:17 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Image source, EPA
Image caption,
Reporters wait in the hallway after they were told to leave the courtroom by the judge
We've just witnessed the most tense moment of this trial.
I was inside the courtroom when officers kicked us out. We were just allowed back in a moment ago.
Justice Merchan directed the officers to "clear the courtroom" after asking Costello "Are you staring me down?"
Several journalists objected to being kicked out, noting that this is supposed to be a public proceeding.
After officers ushered reporters out of the courtroom in a chaotic fashion, we stood in the hallway for a few minutes before being allowed back inside.
Judges orders courtroom cleared as he reprimands witness for 'side eye'published at 21:12 British Summer Time 20 May
Breaking
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
We're in the midst of an extremely dramatic moment just now.
Justice Merchan has ordered the courtroom cleared after he launched into a harsh reprimand of Bob Costello's conduct, but we can still hear the audio in the overflow room.
Here's what went down:
"I want to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom," Justice Merchan tells Costello.
He then said it's his courtroom and if Costello does not like his ruling, he does not say "geez".
"You don't make a side-eye, you don't roll your eyes," Justice Merchan continues.
Again, we can only hear audio, but Justice Merchan is the angriest we've ever heard him - even compared to when he was reprimanding Trump over the gag order.
And then it gets more heated. "Are you staring me down?" Justice Merchan barks suddenly.
We can't see what's going on, but then hear Justice Merchan order the courtroom be cleared.
Judge and witness have tense momentpublished at 21:07 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
We just had a contentious moment in court as prosecutors continued to object to Emil Bove's questioning and Merchan kept sustaining their objections.
"Jeez," Costello says after the last objection.
"I'm sorry?" Justice Merchan questions him in a stern voice.
Justice Merchan has also had to tell Costello not to respond after objections are sustained.
Costello's testimony continues after short pausepublished at 21:04 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Emil Bove is now back at the podium and he keeps directing Robert Costello to respond “very narrowly” to his questions.
He asks what Michael Cohen said about the hush-money payment.
“Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about those payments, that he [Cohen] did this on his own,” Costello says.
Bove is showing emails between Costello and Cohen, including one in which he says Rudy Giuliani could be “very useful” to Cohen. Those messages were sent as Costello was joining the Trump legal team.
Cohen leaves courthouse after finishing testimonypublished at 21:00 British Summer Time 20 May
Image source, Reuters
Michael Cohen has been the star witness for four days, but he is now finally finished with his testimony.
He was pictured leaving the courthouse moments ago.
Costello testimony quickly leads to objections from prosecutorspublished at 20:58 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Robert Costello says he told Michael Cohen that “this entire legal problem he was facing would be resolved by the end of the week” if he had truthful information on Donald Trump, and cooperated with prosecutors.
Costello says Cohen told him: “I swear to god, Bob, I don’t have anything on Trump.”
There are many objections to Bove’s questioning, most of which are sustained by the judge.
Justice Merchan is now asking both teams to approach the bench.
Costello met Cohen after FBI raided ex-fixer's homepublished at 20:56 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Cohen leaves federal court in May 2018, a week after the FBI raided his home.
Michael Costello starts by telling the court about when he met Michael Cohen for the first time at the Regency Hotel in New York in 2018.
It was when federal authorities began to investigate Cohen and raid his house.
“He was absolutely manic,” Costello says.
Costello adds that Cohen asked him what his options were for handling the investigations.
Judge says he won't allow this to become a 'trial within a trial'published at 20:52 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
Justice Merchan
Justice Merchan says he will allow some testimony from Robert Costello.
This can include testimony Donald Trump allegedly pressuring Michael Cohen over the hush-money payment, as well as testimony about any alleged inconsistencies in what Cohen has already told the court.
But Merchan puts up some guardrails.
"I'm not going to allow this to become a trial within a trial," he says.
Costello enters the courtroom wearing a blue suit and blue tie. Trump looks in his direction as he walks to the stand.
Emil Bove will be questioning him for the defence.
Lawyers argue over parameters of Costello testimonypublished at 20:41 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Jurors are asked to step out for the second time today as prosecutors object to calling Robert "Bob" Costello as a witness.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger says Costello's testimony needs to be limited and that he should not be allowed to comment on other peoples' credibility.
Donald Trump's lawyer Emil Bove says that Costello should be able to rebut Cohen's testimony. The ex-fixer claimed that Costello acted as a communications back channel to Trump and the White House in 2018.
"Of course I'm not going to elicit Mr Costello's opinion of Mr Cohen's credibility," Bove says.
"We're entitled to put on witnesses," he adds.
Who is Bob Costello?published at 20:38 British Summer Time 20 May
Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Robert Costello pictured last year
Lawyer Bob Costello has been called by the defence as the next witness.
Costello spoke with 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.
And he has publicly criticised both this trial and Trump's ex-lawyer. He was appeared before the grand jury that investigated the former president on March 20, 2023, at the request of Trump's attorneys.
Last Wednesday, he testified before a congressional panel and called Cohen a liar.
“Virtually every statement he made about me was another lie," Costello said.
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 that Cohen was acting "absolutely manic" in 2018, according to Politico.
Defence finishes with first witness and calls Robert Costello to standpublished at 20:32 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
After quizzing his own employee about how he documented phone calls made by Michael Cohen, Todd Blanche finishes questioning his first witness.
The Trump team then called Robert Costello, a lawyer who provided Cohen legal advice in 2018, to the stand.
Costello was considered a likely defence witness, who will aid the effort to discredit Cohen.
He testified before Congress last week that he considers the ex-fixer to be a liar.
'Trump wants to testify' - past lawyer sayspublished at 20:24 British Summer Time 20 May
Image source, Reuters
Alina Habba, who represented Donald Trump in some of his other legal cases, has been speaking with Fox News outside the courthouse.
"We know he wants to testify, he's willing, he's able... Nothing to hide at all, he's absolutely ready to tell the truth," says Habba, who has sat with Trump's allies during the hush-money trial.
She adds that it would be a "pretty short testimony", but at the end of the day Trump has to "listen to his attorneys".
So will he testify? We still don't know for sure.
The prosecution rests and Trump's team calls their first witnesspublished at 20:16 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
And with that, Michael Cohen is finished after many hours of testimony.
He exits the room without looking at Donald Trump.
The prosecution has now rested their case, and the defence team takes over.
They call their first witness, Daniel Sitko.
He's a paralegal with Todd Blanche's law firm. He says he spends a lot of time reviewing evidence in defence cases
Cohen appears to stay calm as questions heat uppublished at 20:12 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
A court sketch from earlier this morning
Todd Blanche is now back questioning Michael Cohen.
He presses Cohen about who is really responsible for him losing his law license, noting that Cohen was also convicted of crimes related to tax fraud and lying to Congress.
Cohen says Trump is one of the reasons he is no longer allowed to practice law.
He has appeared calm and composed for much of his testimony today, including when Blanche throws Cohen a more aggressive line of questioning.
Cohen says his life was 'turned upside down'published at 20:06 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Susan Hoffinger asks Michael Cohen how telling his story has affected him.
“My entire life has been turned upside down as a direct result. I lost my law licenses, my business, my financial security,” he says.
Hoffinger asks if the scandal has been painful to his family. “Very much so,” he says, before Hoffinger ends her re-direct.
Cohen phone recording replayed by prosecutorspublished at 20:03 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
After a short break to fix some technical difficulties, prosecutors are playing the court a recording of a conversation between Cohen and Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Keith Davidson.
We've heard this one before.
In it, Cohen says, it's "not just me who's being affected".
"No one is thinking about Michael," he adds.
He goes on to say that Trump told him several times: "I hate the fact that we did it".
Cohen says he was referring to the Stormy Daniels hush-money payment.
Prosecutors return to Cohen's earlier testimonypublished at 20:01 British Summer Time 20 May
Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court
Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
A court sketch from earlier this morning
With Michael Cohen back on the witness stand, Susan Hoffinger returns to hammering home some key points for the prosecution's arguments.
Do you have any doubt in your mind that Trump gave you the final sign off for the Stormy Daniels payment? Hoffinger asks.
“No doubt,” Cohen says.
Hoffinger asks if he would’ve paid Daniels without Trump’s sign off.
“No ma’am … because I wanted to ensure that I would get my funds back,” Cohen says.