Let's walk through
what's going on on the stand rig
because it sounds rather intense
The defense is called Robert Cos
as a witness.
He was a lawyer
who at one point had advised
Michael Cohen.
He in the last few weeks,
he has been coming out and sayin
that Michael Cohen
is lying about him on the stand.
He testified before Congress,
before Republicans in Congress.
And some of what's going on righ
is, for instance, Costello said
that he Cohen told him 10 to 12
during their meeting,
I swear to God, Bob,
I don't have anything on Donald
So that's
he is there
to impeach the credibility
of Michael Cohen.
But what's going on
is that Costello is really expre
disdain for Judge McCann's rulin
Costello shakes his head
as if he was exasperated, exaspe
when Judge Mershon sustained an
from the prosecution
about one of the answers.
At another time
when the prosecution objected,
Gershon
told the lawyers to approach
the bench,
and Costello
could be heard saying
on the microphone,
Ridiculous, just saying
ridiculous
while the attorneys are at sideb
Then in another time,
there was another objection
which was sustained.
Costello lets out a Jesus.
I'm that's my interpretation.
But that's how one says such a t
when they're frustrated.
Sean leans forward
and says to the witness, Mr.
Costello, sorry.
And then Beauvais returns.
No, no. And then?
And then at one point
the judge actually asks
for the for the trial to take a
He tells the jury to leave the r
This is a pretty extreme thing t
And he tells Costello in a raise
Jake, the judge has just cleared
the entire courtroom.
Here is it.
Now, this has escalated
to a security concern
and the overflow is cut.
We're not getting any more infor
I mean, the fact that
this has escalated to this exten
this is part of why
there was disagreement
within the Trump world
about whether they should call
Bob Costello.
The only reason he is being call
is because the client insisted
that he be called.
There were people on Trump's tea
that thought he would be
too much of a threat.
So that the judge has now
reprimanded him for staring him
Yeah, this is really taking it.
So, yeah, that's what I was
I was getting to that,
he told Costello in a raised voi
when he told the jury to leave.
Mr.
Costello, you're to remain seate
The jury leaves.
Then Costello
After another sustained
objection, Costello rolls his ey
lets out an audible sigh, side g
The judge,
the judge says,
I want to discuss
proper decorum in my courtroom.
The judge says,
You don't give me a side eye
and you don't roll your eyes.
The judge says
when there's a witness on the st
if you don't like my ruling,
you don't say, Geez,
you don't say, strike it.
Costello holds a long glare at t
Judge Mershon says,
Are you staring me down?
Then the judge says, Clear the c
There's yelling by security offi
at the press to leave.
The video is cut.
Court security says
nobody can come back in.
Paula, you have a JD.
You've been covering court cases
for quite some time.
Have you ever seen anything like
No.
This is unbelievable.
And I know Bob Costello quite we
I've talked to him for about a d
The fact that he would allow thi
to happen on the stand,
it suggests in many ways
that he is probably posturing
for the defendant.
Remember, it's the defendant
that overrode his own defense at
They said this is not a good ide
Do not put Costello on the stand
He overrode them
because he loved Costello's perf
in Congress last week,
where he attacked
not only Bob Costello,
but also this case and the judge
So the fact that Costello
would conduct himself in a trial
like this
potentially jeopardize a case li
I am actually pretty surprised.
But it validates the concerns
that have been expressed
by members of Trump's defense te
about why
they did not want to call
Costello
and also remind us why
when the defendant calls the sho
and not the defense attorneys,
you can have something like this
And Paula, I mean, Bob, Robert C
Bob Costello, he is an attorney,
I mean, he knows how important i
than the average
Joe on the street
to show
respect and deference
to a judge's rulings.
I mean, these are just objection
that are being sustained.
I was there last week or the wee
And, you know,
I mean, a judge machine sustains
objections from both the prosecu
and the defense.
I know the defense
doesn't think he's fair,
but as a general note,
what I saw
seemed, you know,
in keeping with courtroom procee
for him to do that,
that's that's knowing hostility.
I mean, that is knowing
animosity towards a judge's ruli
Jake, this is
this is unbelievable that he wou
in this kind of conduct, forced
the entire courtroom to be clear
I reiterate,
there have always been concerns
about Costello.
Costello is the only defense
witness called
before the grand jury in this ca
His testimony,
he said, resonated with the gran
But he didn't stave off an indic
He was not expected to be called
until late last week
when Trump said he had to be cal
This is so over the top,
undermining everything
the defense has tried to do
for their client
over the past week or so.
It's unclear
what impact
this is going to have on the cas
but this is exactly why
certain members of the defense t
did not want to call him.
But again, I dealt with him for
I am pretty shocked
that this is the way that he's
behaving on the stand.
Look, he has animus towards
Michael Cohen, no doubt.
He also has some
ill will towards the judge.
But the fact that he would engag
in this kind of behavior
in a criminal courtroom
in a historic case of this natur
is truly shocking.
Yeah.
And members
of the media
and the people in the gallery
are being
allowed back into the courtroom.
Let me get my panel to weigh in
And I apologize ahead of time, p
for when I interrupt you to tell
what's going on inside the court
But first,
let me start with Caitlin
Poland's, who's been covering th
for quite some time.
I'm pretty surprised. What about
I'm pretty surprised.
But, Jake,
this is maintaining order in the
No, no, I'm surprised about Bob
who is a
you know,
a member of the bar would say, J
when the judge it makes a ruling
He doesn't like it.
He's a he's not a he's
not he's not the defendant.
He's a witness.
Yeah.
And staring at the judge,
sighing, rolling his eyes.
That's clearly not the sort of b
that you would expect out of a w
And, you know,
we can't say exactly
why he's doing what he's doing,
but he is quite an experienced a
and he is in this circle of peop
Donald Trump
who's been on the legal side of
more often
then in this sort of position
as a witness.
He was Steve Bannon's lawyer.
He was Rudy Giuliani's lawyer.
He has been a lawyer in these ca
for quite some time.
In this context, he's a legal ad
to Michael Cohen,
trying to put that fine point
for the defense team
that Michael Cohen is a lying li
who lies.
Yeah,
Whether that's going to come acr
because of this level of disrupt
remains to be seen
will be for the jury to decide.
Elise Adamson, what do you think
What do you make of it all?
I mean, I am really shocked.
The only time I've ever seen
a courtroom cleared
is when there's
an actual security concern.
Somebody has yelled
something threatening.
The defendant has got up
and made movements toward the do
That's when they clear a courtro
So this was an extreme step,
but one that was necessary
because it is right. He.
Costello was showing
no decorum
for the court,
a complete
disrespect for this judicial pro
And you know what?
It undermines the defense's case
because they need him to be more
than Michael Cohen.
But when assessing
the credibility of a witness,
which the judge will instruct, d
is one of the things
that the jury can take into acco
when assessing the credibility
and think about the demeanor
we've just seen.
That's a ten part lottery.
What do you what do you make of
All because I have to say, Bob C
you know, elderly gentleman walk
in, has a
has a good story
to tell about why Michael Cohen
either lied then or is lying now
One of the other. Why why do thi
speculate for me?
Oh, I was good for.
My good
because I don't have a good answ
So you don't know.
But it's form speculation.
I mean, look, in
full disclosure, Bob is a friend
I've known him for for a while.
Did you expect. This? No.
Now, Bob is the former head
of the criminal division
in the Southern District
of New York, U.S.
Attorney's Office.
He's a very experienced criminal
I know that he has been frustrat
generally with the process.
I know that
when he went before the grand ju
he was very frustrated
that frustrated with what
with the district attorney
and the way that they presented
the case where
they wouldn't
ask him the questions
or let him testify about certain
And, you know,
he brought a lot of the emails
and they refused to
submit them to the jury.
So maybe this is some of that fr
boiling over.
You know,
while certainly
you don't want to have
this kind of behavior
in front of the jury,
I will tell you that, you know,
much of what we're seeing right
is after the jury left. Yeah.
And one thing I was thinking bef
before this is the volume of
of objections
coming from the prosecutor's off
It struck me that it could have
the negative impact
of the jury of saying,
oh, this is something
they really don't want us to hea
It must be something. Some.
They're there. Yeah.
I don't know if Bob, maybe
if this increases that
or if it neutralizes.
We're going to squeeze in a quic
Shinwell, I'm going to come to
you first in the next block.
I apologize. Everyone stay with
If you're just joining us,
the judge has just cleared the c
and then reopened it
after a rather tense exchange
with a defense witness.
How will this dramatic day,
19 of the hush money cover up ca
And CNN's
covering this trial gavel to gav
We'll be right back.