Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240703 : vimarsana.com

CNNW CNN July 3, 2024

Santa newsnight starts now the circus comes to the courtroom. Thats tonight on these nine good evening. Im abby phillip the new york tonight. Tensions and chaos erupt inside of the courtroom. Let me set the scene for you. The trump team made a game time decision to call a witness, robert costello. Hes a former Legal Advisor to Michael Cohen. Now about 14 minutes into his testimony, cohen, costello vividly demonstrated why he may have caught trumps the tension. But the Presiding Judge was not amused costello rolled his eyes. A judge merchan, he let out an audible sigh after an objection. And the transcript, maybe the best way to describe what happened next in that courtroom. The judge, he says, i wanted to discuss proper decorum in my courtroom. Costello, right judge okay. So when there is a witness on the stand, if you dont like my ruling, you dont say, jeez. Okay. And then you dont say strike it because im the only one who can strike testimony in the courtroom. Do you, understand that costello . I understand. Judg okay. Then if you dont like my ruling, you dont give me the sayyed i and you dont roll your eyes. Do you understand that . Do you understand that costello i understand that. I understand what youre saying, judge. Okay. Thank you. Lets get the jury back. Are you staring me down right now costello know im just wondering how judge clear the courtroom, please cleathe courtroom bottom line judge marsha, who is normally softspoken, measured. He was furious today. The judge cleared that courtroom and dressed down the witness, all of which served mostly to distract from what would have otherwise been a pretty strong de for the defense the prosecutions star witness, Michael Cohen, while he may have flown a little too close to the sun and scorch the governments case against the former president in the process. Trumps lawyers backed Michael Cohen into a shocking admission that the fixer is a thief now on the stand, cohen said that he took 60,000 from payments that he had received from trump, which included reimbursement for the hush money that he ultimately paid to Stormy Daniels. The very payments that are at the core of this trial that is an alleged crime that cohen never faced charges four joining me now is former counsel to President Trump during is first impeachment. Robert ray, from a federal prosecutor, gene rossi, and washington correspondent for new york magazine, olivia newsy, and trial lawyer deanna paul robert. This is a pretty shocking decision actually, on the part of the defense to bring costs hello in from our reporting despite a lot of backandforth internally to give them what seemed to ultimately be not a whole lot and then in the Process Antagonize the judge. Well, i think about antagonizing the judge. Fortunately, most of what you just read, their transpired out of the presence of the jury. I mean, there were some things that this witness did that caught this judges attention. He was pretty upset about that did happen before the jury but he was reacting in real time before he took the jury out of the room. So the question is really, how much did the jury capture of this and what if any, reaction will they have looked the only purpose of calling this witness was to impeach Michael Cohens testimony with proof of a prior inconsistent statement, i e to the effect that costello knows because cohen told him that he didnt have anything on trump, which is obviously contrary was testimony now at trial, and thats the only reason that you would have called him . I mean, turning it into a circus obviously is not generally speaking, a good idea. But as far as what actually transpired before the judge, the jury, of course, doesnt is not aware of any of that. I think the obviously know about the commotion and that may have some Collateral Effect but the more important part of todays testimony was the part that you lead will, which is the stuff relatively what cohen did. And well get to that in just a moment. I mean, its so interesting to me that costello showed up on capitol hill last week. He gave this blockbuster testimony, at least according to conservatives and it was no surprise to me that that would have gotten trumps attack. It was intended to get trumps attention they bring him into the courtroom and were only halfway through this thing. The prosecutions going to get a stab at costello. And i suspect its going to be all about what you know, this kind of mafia like environment that was all around trump with giuliani, with costello and with Michael Cohen, donald trump does not have good ideas it seems possible that this was his, his legal team appeasing him in some way and saying, okay, if youd like this guy who just to testify in a way that was attractive to you on capitol hill i guess we can bring him in if it wasnt truly necessary to their case. It seems like a good guess that maybe this was about the kind of audience of one theory that all of his lawyers the padding to deal with at some point and you saw you start today after trump left the courtroom, he went to new dress to cameras that does actually play moments. This is trump speaking after the proceedings today so what happened to a highly respected bob costello ive never seen anything like that. I id be looking. Todd blanche faith in that clip he looks like hes not breathing for the entirety of this press conference. And i was worried he was going to pass out. Surely, he looked like he was not breathing and like hes just standing there bracing himself, hoping that his client does not violate this gag order, which arguably he did and does not create further calamity every day it seems like todd, blanche, and the rest of the legal team is sort of just praying that their client doesnt do yet another deeply silly thing to make this more complicated for them. I had the same reaction. I thought that it could very well, very well be another violation of the gag order. And well see what judge merchan says tomorrow. What stood out to me the most today was just the way judge merchan has been able to control the courtroom throughout the course of the dial, you had even when trump was muttering things, when Stormy Daniels was on the stand, he called the layers up to sidebar and said control your client, but didnt want to embarrass him. And today we saw that again, where rather than calling pastel out in front of a room full of press and full of trumps supporters clear the courtroom in order to give him as really a stern of a warning as you possibly could without actually holding him in contempt and even cleared the courtroom of the media which is actually a whole other step that weve never seen in this hearing. Borrow more. I mean, theres one thing to have a sidebar, but to take all the press out of the room so that you can do what youre gonna do without them witnessing it. Thats the only explanation. I can tell you this. Ive never seen this in my entire 30 years as a prosecutor. Wheres the defense . Attorney . But i just want to supplement something that robert said. Who brought up a couple of good points, at least de jury sends Something Wrong was happening i say yes and the reason is there are two attorneys on a jury and ill guarantee even though they didnt hear the sidebar, new cleared Courtroom Comments that you just read . Those two attorneys and probably other jurors could sense that the way mr. Costello was acting was beyond the pale. And i got to say this primacy recency, you start off with a good argument and you end with a good argument. If that is their last witness kevin forbid. Donald trump ended on the worst possible note only mr. Costello could have rehabilitated Michael Cohen because what did Michael Cohen say . I didnt trust the guy. I thought essentially he was asleep ball and he was working for giuliani. And i didnt want to tell him what i didnt need to tell him. So what did castello do . He reinforced what cohen had said about costello. Thats not a good way to end your case. I mean, look, we for not expecting castula to be the lats witness or a witness at all. Frankly sources had been telling cnn he was unlikely to be, but then instead of taking this moment, robert, where as you pointed out, they catch Michael Cohen. The lie. I mean, its not the first time weve heard this particular thing where he stole the money but it was a grand larceny. Its a theft its not just about the fact that its a lie, its its right in the middle as elie honig in a prior segment earlier today, its like right in the middle of what theyre charging donald trump with. And it turns out that donald trump is a victim of them crime itself it sounds like you cant make this stuff up. It really isnt good second half of you make of that though. I mean, robert, i mean, the whole kit thats legally a circus. The rest of the rest of it may be. Youre correct to point out the stuff with i still costello comes with a lot of baggage. I was a little worried when i saw that thats where the defense was going because you really want to make it about if youre the defense that the prosecution is politically motivated when you put costello up in there and you start raising Rudy Giuliani and other people into this. It comes with baggage. Now, how much the prosecution is going to be able to do with that and what would be admissible. Well find out in the i guess tomorrow. But the league but nevertheless the legal circles, the part that the legal circuits, theres a criminal defendant and then the criminal defendant may have been a victim of a crime as well. That is not charged. Everybody looks bad this generation, i just make your comment in roberts outstanding prosecutor, and we know what fronting is and fronting is when the prosecutor has a witness on the stand and the witness has baggage. As robert knows, you try to fronted you try to bring out the wards, the baggage im going to play a Monday Morning quarterback. We never throw interceptions. Yeah. I dont think the prosecutors fronted enough of Michael Cohens warts. And this theft thing is something that they should really have gotten in the weeds on. Yeah. I mean, well, there are two things that didnt come out but on direct examination of clouds have been the focus of the most recent crossexaminati on. One is what was happening during that october phone call. They didnt front the fact that it was about the stock are principally and then the second thing is this, which is they didnt front the fact that not only was there a theft, he didnt take Michael Cohen didnt take a guilty plea for that and it also was never mentioned during his direct examination. I mean, that makes the process not only the witness look bad, it makes the prosecution i why one thing i think about though with this whole story, i mean, theres so many ways to interpret this part of it also is that this tactic of trump having michael oh, and essentially front money for him and then reimbursing him is part of the pattern that actually the prosecution is trying to establish for what they how they handled Stormy Daniels i actually i agree with what you were saying. I think the more effective line of crossexamination was about the call with Keith Schiller any idea that that was never brought up during grand jury me, it was the first time you ever talked about it. And when it comes to Michael Cohens an opportunist so this idea that he pocketed 30,000 i mean, is it does it make or break the prosecutions case . I dont think so. I think the thing that really undercuts his credibility to the jury is going to be hearing over and over that he lied he lied under oath, and that directly goes to his ability to be able to be a credible witness on the stand yeah. I mean im actually just as a little sidebar here. The thing that trump did Michael Cohen paid this firm four is one of the most trumpian things ive ever heard basically unimportant cmc poll, but he paid 50,000 to try to gave easier forget all of this now because so many more important things its have happened, but they Campaign Began in the atrium of trump tower. They hired actors to pretend to be trumps supporters. We forget that. They were doing, they were doing fake polls left and right. Michael cohen ran twitter account. Women women from Michael Cohen. Lets forget, i know you were follower, but it was a very strange, Strange Campaign where they were just making up all the time. And it didnt matter in the end except for now what it does one thing that also happened today was about this video of that phone call were not a video of Michael Count of donald trump and Keith Schiller that would basically serve to kind of substantiate that phone call, that critical phone call. The defense had actually so well tried to undercut how significant is it that they were allowed to get that evidence in today, despite the vociferously objections of the defense one of one of our reporters, really said of all the things that the defenses objected to. This was probably the thing they objected to the most a video of donald trump and Keith Schiller together around the time when that phone call was supposed to well, i will say this the photo itself, i think only the photo came in. Yeah, not the video i love baseball and is a photo a home run know . Its probably a week bunt all right. What the prosecutors trying to do is just show that this shield were in trump were joined at the hip and at the precise moment that cohen called, i guess it was eight zero for a fight for years. Oh, yeah. Four minutes later schiller and trump were right together. So is it a home run . No. Does it sort of rehabilitate just a little bit . Yes. But i think the damage was done during the crossexamination of cohen when this whole thing about the as i wouldnt have fought so hard to keep it out. Yeah. And then they eventually if the jury saw that the defense was trying in too hard to exclude it, frankly, that to me is more damaging than the evidence itself. Id have let it in even if i thought jeez, thats not so great mostly because i mean, hes the guy is bodyguard. Of course, hes with them all the time with differences that make that they have a photo together, even if the timestamp is around the time that the phone call came in, that really wasnt the defenses thank you. Meant the defenses argument was this phone call was about a particular Subject Matter that you completely neglected to testify to in the grand jury. And during your direct examination, and now all of a sudden, youve got caught. So i dont really know that the photograph changes any of that to any significant degree, but it just didnt look good. Im interesting choices its made by the Defense Counsel today in court, everyone. Thank you very much for all of that. And tonight, there is a potential Arrest Warrant now for israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over israels war in gaza and President Biden is livid about it, will debate next plus new details on that Helicopter Crash that killed the hard line president of iran. And what it means its for the world now and just tonight, why Sean Diddy Combs did not mention his exgirlfriend, casi in his apology after that horrific video. O of him beating her. 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