Name: Defense Moves to Dismiss Case as Trump Trial Nears End
Uploaded: 2024-05-20T22:56:33.000Z
Description: Former President Donald Trump's "hush money" trial continues in New York on May 20.

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Former President Donald Trump's "hush money" trial continues in New York on May 20.

<em>Follow here for the live updates:</em>
<h2>Trump Calls Judge a 'Tyrant'</h2>
"That was incredible, I've never seen anything like it in my life," President Trump said after leaving the courtroom. He spoke for longer than usually.

He criticized Justice Merchan, calling him a "tyrant."

"Hopefully the motion to dismiss this trial will go through because this trial is a disaster for our country," he said. "This is a witch hunt."

He commented that even the press was "thrown out" of the courtroom earlier when the judge clashed with a witness.

"This is a show trial, there's no actual crime or evidence," President Trump said. He read from several articles covering the trial.

"This case should be dropped by the judge," he said. "I think the judge, if he did that, would be—he'd gain the respect back. Either the appellate court has to step in, something has to happen."
<h2>Judge Reserves Ruling</h2>
Mr. Blanche reiterated his points, and the judge did not issue an immediate ruling.

“I’m going to reserve a decision,” Justice Merchan said.
<h2>Prosecutors Say Trump Participation Is Enough to Prove Intent</h2>
Prosecuting attorney Matthew Colangelo said the “trial record overwhelmingly rebuts that there is no evidence of falsity.”

He pointed to records entered into evidence, tracking the wire payment Mr. Cohen made to Mr. Davidson, and testimony from Ms. Clifford acknowledging the payment.

“Mr. Blanche made a couple of arguments regarding intent to defraud,” Mr. Colangelo said. “As a matter of law, your honor, it is more than sufficient if the defendant set in motion the sequence of events that led to the false entries being made.”

“And then of course, as your honor also held, the evidence show intent to deceive government regulators,” Mr. Colangelo said. “On the last point, intent to conceal evidence of a crime, your honor there were weeks and weeks of testimony, corroborated by emails, bank records, and other documents, of a conspiracy that was entered into in a meeting in Trump Tower that was then effectuated through unlawful means.”

“To conceal investor advisory services, to conceal the intended transaction between AMI and Donald Trump, your honor there’s a lot more, but we don’t need to make a full summation to rebut the argument that Mr. Blanche has made. A dismissal is not warranted.”

Justice Merchan said, “I’ll reserve judgment.”
<h2>‘Fool 12 New Yorkers?’ Defense Ask Judge to Find Cohen Not Credible</h2>
“There is no way that the court should let this case go to the jury relying on Mr. Cohen’s testimony. Without his testimony, there is no case,” Mr. Blanche said. “He has repeatedly lied, and he lied this morning. We put on irrefutable proof, when he testified on direct about a phone call.”

“So you’re asking me to find Mr. Cohen not credible as a matter of law,” Justice Merchan said.

“Yes,” Mr. Blanche said. “It shouldn’t move the court that he continues to lie.”

“So you want me to take it out of the jury’s hands, and decide before it gets to the jury,” Justice Merchan said.

“We didn’t just catch him in a lie, he came in here with a history of lying under oath,” Mr. Blanche said.

“You think his lies are so irrefutable he’s going to fool 12 New Yorkers?” Justice Merchan asked.

The judge then heard from the prosecution.
<h2>Defense Moves to Dismiss Case</h2>
The parties conferred to discuss scheduling for the remainder of the trial. Ms. Hoffinger said she has about 30 to 45 minutes of cross-examination for Mr. Costello, which would continue tomorrow.

“Your honor, for several reasons, we believe the court should enter for dismissal now,” Mr. Blanche said.

“First, there’s absolutely not evidence that the filings were false. The business records were not false. there is no dispute that Mr. Cohen provided legal services to President Trump in 2017. Not only did Mr. Cohen not deny that, but Ms. Tarasoff said the same thing, when she entered the invoices into the system they were entered as legal services,” he said.

“Second, there is no evidence that there is any intent to defraud by President Trump in connection with these filings,” Mr. Blanche argued. “These are records that were generated in Michael Cohen’s personal relationship … out of the personal records, the personal bank account of President Trump, where Presiednt Trump was the only person who had any signatory authority over the bank account.”

“There is no evidence that there is any intent by President Trump at that time to mislead or falsify any business records,” Mr. Blanche said. “If there was intent to defraud, there would be something there, either the invoices are entered in a different manner, there would be some evidence.”

“Third, now, the people rest today and there is no evidence, zero, that anyone was thinking about a campaign finance charge in 2016 when this payment was made to Ms. Daniels,” Mr. Blanche said. “There is no evidence that anyone was thinking about a campaign finance charge when Mr. Cohen and Mr. Weisselberg met to discuss how he would be paid.”

“And so the prosecutors have talked about some sort of conspiracy to influence the election, but as the court knows, there has to be something illegal about this effort,” Mr. Blanche said. “What the evidence shows is that they got together in 2015 to talk about positive and negative stories, and Mr. Pecker would keep an eye out about anything bad he heard about President Trump.”

“The underlying criminal intent that the People are suggesting, FICA, New York business tax fraud … as a matter of law they should not be allowed to use any of those predicates when there’s no evidene that Mr. Pecker, Dylan Howard, or any other alleged coconspirators had any kind of criminal intent,” Mr. Blanche said. “We don’t have any evidence of any kind of criminal intent when this so-called conspiracy is born or played out over the next year and a half.”

Mr. Blanche said Karen McDougal was seeking to restart her career and an agreement that would put her on the cover of magazines while Dino Sajudin was shopping around a false story.

“How on earth is keeping a false story from the voters criminal?” Mr. Blanche asked. “So it’s a false story and a decision is made to pay off the author of the false story. That’s not catch and kill, your honor, it’s certainly not criminal catch and kill.”

“There’s simply no evidence of any criminal intent in 2016, 2017, and for that reason, the court should enter a verdict in favor of the defendant,” Mr. Blanche said.
<h2>Costello: Cohen Was ‘Suicidal’ After Search</h2>
Ms. Hoffinger asked about that first meeting between Mr. Costello and Mr. Cohen, and how the raid affected Mr. Cohen.

“Mr. Cohen was visibly shaken up that day, wasn’t he?” Ms. Hoffinger asked.

“He was suicidal that day,” Mr. Costello said.

“As a criminal defense attorney for all those years, you can understand how traumatic it is for someone to go through that experience,” Ms. Hoffinger said.

“He was putting on quite a show, and he explained to us that two nights before, he was on the roof of the Regency Hotel, and he was going to jump off and kill himself, because he couldn’t handle the pressure of the ongoing criminal case he saw heading his way,” Mr. Costello said.

“Did you tell the grand jury that you thought he was acting as a drama queen?” Ms. Hoffinger said.

“No, I said I didn’t know whether he was acting like a drama queen,” Mr. Costello said. He added that he couldn’t accurately assess how serious Mr. Cohen had been but his law partner believed it.

Court adjourned.
<h2>Prosecutors Ask Costello About Giuliani, Trump Connections</h2>
Mr. Costello said his law partner Mr. Citron had known Mr. Cohen for 10 years, and Mr. Costello took the meeting because Mr. Citron had arranged it.

“Because Jeff was a real estate attorney, and this was obviously a criminal matter,” Mr. Costello said.

“And if you could land him, personal attorney to Donald Trump, as a client, this would be big news for your firm, and it would be what you call a high-profile case?” Ms. Hoffinger asked. She also asked it it would solidify connections with Rudy Giuliani.

Mr. Costello said that Mr. Giuliani was not representing President Trump at that time.

“Would it be something you would announce on your website?” Ms. Hoffinger asked.

“I don’t know what the firm would do,” Mr. Costello said.

Prosecutors showed an email Mr. Costello sent to his son.

“I will be on the team. ‘It would be an honor to have you part of my team. I will be eternally grateful for the help and guidance you have given me.’—Michael Cohen, personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump,” the email read. “This is not public yet so do not say anything to anyone about this. I do not know when we will make an announcement but I have been authorized to contact Rudy Giuliani as counsel to President Trump and tell him I will be representing Michael Cohen.”

His son wrote back: “Wow. This is big news. Congrats Dad.”
<h2>Costello Denies 'Pressure Campaign'</h2>
“Mr. Costello, did you ever put pressure on Michael Cohen to do anything?” Mr. Bove asked.

“During your interactions with Michael Cohen, did you consider him to be a client?” Mr. Bove asked.

“Absolutely, I treated him that way,” Mr. Costello said.

“And whose interest did you have in mind?” Mr. Bove asked.

“Michael Cohen’s,” Mr. Costello said.

Mr. Costello said his firm did not try to collect payment from Mr. Cohen, as the “amount wasn’t enough.”
<h2>Costello Testimony Continues</h2>
Justice Merchan motioned for the jury to return to the courtroom.

Mr. Bove showed an email from Mr. Costello to Mr. Cohen on May 16, 2018.

“You wrote at the bottom of this message, ‘I will not pester you. If you want to talk, you know how to reach Jeff or myself,'” Mr. Bove said.

“Michael had been complaining about the lawyers,” Mr. Costello started, before prosecutors objected.

“Stricken. Please just answer the question,” Justice Merchan said.

Mr. Costello said Mr. Cohen called him the same day. Looking at the call records, the call was an hour and 36 minutes.

A June 7, 2018, email from Mr. Costello to Mr. Cohen said that “to prove to you that Rudy Giuliani called me and I did not call him, I photographed the pages from my iPhone.”

Call records showed that Mr. Cohen initiated a call that lasted 46 minutes.

On June 13, 2018, Mr. Costello sent an email to Mr. Cohen with a line that read, “If you want or need to communicate something, please let me know and I will see that it gets done.”

“That was in response to his complaint, and I wanted him to know, if you have a complaint, tell me and I will pass it on,” Mr. Costello said.

“And who was he complaining about?” Mr. Bove asked.

“Rudy Giuliani,” Mr. Costello said.
<h2>Judge Warns Costello, Clears Courtroom</h2>
Prosecutors continued to object, and the judge sustained the objections, before warning Mr. Costello about decorum.

“As a witness on the stand, if you don’t like my ruling, you don’t say ‘geez,’ and if a question is overruled, you don’t say ‘strike it,’ because I’m the only one who can strike an answer,” Justice Merchan said. “And if you don’t like my ruling, you don’t look at me side-eyed, and you don’t roll your eyes. Do you understand that?”

“Are you staring me down?” the judge asked.

He ordered the courtroom cleared.
<h2>Costello Testimony Conflicts With Cohen’s</h2>
Mr. Costello said Mr. Cohen had been working with a law firm in Washington. Mr. Bove asked about conversations about retention. Prosecutors objected again, prompting an exclamation from Mr. Costello.

“What had Michael Cohen said to you about how to communicate with Rudy Giuliani?” Mr. Bove asked.

“He told me he wasn’t going to announce it publicly, so although I could tell Giuliani, he wasn’t suppposed to tell anybody in the media,” Mr. Costello said. “He wanted to know how the investigation of Michael Cohen began, whether it was a referral from Washington, how did it get to the Southern District of New York, which is right down the street from here.”

“So Michael Cohen wanted to get information from Rudy Giuliani?” Mr. Bove asked.

“That’s correct,” Mr. Costello said.

Mr. Cohen had testified that it was the other way around.
<h2>Costello Says Cohen Denied Trump Knowledge of Stormy Daniels Payment</h2>
Mr. Bove asked about what was said about President Trump knowing about the Stormy Daniels deal.

“Michael Cohen said numerous times that President Trump knew nothing about payments to Stormy Daniels, and that he did this on his own,” Mr. Costello said.
<h2>Costello Takes Witness Stand</h2>
Mr. Costello said he was formerly an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York, and deputy chief of the criminal division. He met Mr. Cohen in person on April 17, 2018, at the Regency Hotel in Manhattan, accompanied by his law partner Mr. Citron, who knew Mr. Cohen.

“First, Michael Cohen explained the situation, because I had never met Cohen before so I had no idea what was going on, that his home and office had been searched with a search warrant,” Mr. Costello said.

“He as absolutely manic at that meeting. We were in a conference room on the second floor of the Regency Hotel, and he kept pacing, and he said my life is shattered, I want you to show me what my escape routes are,” Mr. Costello said.

Mr. Costello said he had then pointed out that a search warrant for a law office is harder to get, and that he believed Mr. Cohen was obviously not the target of the search warrant, both statements were objected to.

“I explained to Mr. Cohen that this entire legal situation would be resolved by the end of the week if he had truthful information about Donald Trump. He made the same statement he made 10 times that day, he said ‘I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,'” Mr. Costello said.

“He said, ‘I don’t understand why they’re trying to put me in jail for an … NDA,” Mr. Costello said,

Mr. Bove asked if the Trump family came up and prosecutors objected, prompting a sidebar.
<h2>Judge Allows Costello to Testify</h2>
“So Mr. Bove, you can definitely cross-examine as to two prior inconsistent statements, obviously, and I will give you some latitude to explore the pressure campaign. But I’m not going to allow this to become a trial within a trial, as to whether there was this pressure campaign to affect Mr. Cohen,” Justice Merchan said. “This is not what this trial is and I’m not going to allow it to become that.”
<h2>Defense Calls Robert Costello, Prosecutors Object</h2>
The defense next called Mr. Costello, and attorneys conferred with the judge over the admissibility of his testimony.

Defense attorney Emil Bove argued that Mr. Cohen testified that Mr. Costello was pestering him when the records reflect it being the other way around and “now we’re seeking an opportunity to respond.”

Mr. Cohen had testified he omitted things when he spoke with Mr. Costello, fearing they would go back to President Trump.

“That’s extremely probative,” Mr. Bove said, arguing for the opportunity to rebut the “pressure campaign” narrative the prosecutors presented.

“They didn’t just ask a few questions about this, they put it in exhibits,” Mr. Bove.

The judge said the exhibits were admitted for jurors to assess the credibility of Mr. Cohen. He did not see how Mr. Costello could testify about what Mr. Cohen really thought or felt.

“Part of what Mr. Costello is going to do is explain that certain things that Mr. Cohen testified about at this trial were false,” Mr. Bove said.

The judge called for a short break.
<h2>Defense Attorneys Call First Witness</h2>
The defense called as their first witness Daniel Sitko, an analyst who works in defense attorney Todd Blanche's law firm.

Mr. Sitko had been tasked to create a summary chart of phone calls from records shared, and identified calls between Mr. Cohen's phone number ending in 0114 and three numbers associated with Mr. Costello.

Counting unanswered calls as well, there were 75 calls total.
<h2>Cohen Says Money in 2017 Was Repayment</h2>
Mr. Cohen maintained that he believed the call he made to Mr. Schiller included a conversation with Mr. Trump about the Stormy Daniels contract.

"So your testimony is still that in the 90 seconds you were on the phone with him, you talked to him about being harassed by a 14-year-old, everything that was going on, and then you asked him to pass the phone to President Trump and you spoke to him?" Mr. Blanche asked.

"When you testified that you never asked for, nor would you accept a pardon from President Trump, you're saying that this was not a lie?" Mr. Blanche asked.

Mr. Cohen also affirmed that the $420,000 he accepted in 2017 was not payment for legal services, but to pay back money owed.

"You worked for President Trump for, I believe you said, 11 years," Mr. Blanche said.

"Did he overpay things regularly?" Mr. Blanche asked.

Mr. Blanche finished questioning Mr. Cohen and the prosecutors rested their case.
<h2>Cohen Views Trump Partly to Blame for Loss of Law License</h2>
"Now, defense counsel has asked you a lot of questions about how you've profited. Putting aside financial matters, how has telling the truth about Mr. Trump affected you personally?" Ms. Hoffinger asked.

"My whole life has been turned upside down. I lost my law license, my businesses," he said.

Mr. Blanche then asked Mr. Cohen whether he was blaming President Trump.

"Mr. Cohen you were just asked a question a minute ago about your life being turned upside down because you changed your view about Mr. Trump, right? You were just asked a question about the consequences of your conduct, and you said you lost your law license, right. Is that President Trump's fault?"

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