Lawyer Robert Costello’s testimony in Donald Trump’s historic New York criminal trial was likely to leave the jury “pissed off,” experts told NOTUS — but outside the courtroom, supporters claimed another win for the former president as Trump sows public distrust in the justice system.
Costello, a Trump ally who gave legal advice to Michael Cohen in 2018, was one of only two witnesses called by the defense, and he testified that Cohen had assured him privately Trump knew nothing about the payments to prevent Stormy Daniels from going public about her alleged affair with Trump. But his testimony took a strange twist: Costello sighed loudly and made snide remarks as prosecutors objected to his testimony, causing the judge to order the jury and press out of the courtroom and reprimand the witness.
“That interaction had a very detrimental effect on that witness’s testimony,” criminal defense lawyer J. Craig Williams told NOTUS. “The jury knows the witness acted out after his testimony was struck, and the jury will likely assume that this witness is not being truthful since he got into such a fight with the judge.”