The judge in the trial of Donald Trump’s hush money case made the reporters leave the courtroom and warned the defense’s witness that he might be removed from the trial because of how he behaved while testifying. This information was recorded in a court transcript.
Judge Juan M. Merchan told Robert Costello, who used to be a federal prosecutor, that his behavior was disrespectful.
Costello annoyed Merchan multiple times during his testimony by whispering comments and talking after objections were made, which made it clear to the witnesses to stop speaking. Costello said “jeez” when he was interrupted by an objection. He also said the whole thing was “silly. ”
“I want to let you know that I think your behavior is disrespectful,” Merchan said during a private conversation when the press was not around. “If you keep staring at me, I will make you leave. ”
Costello did not respond to a message asking for a comment on Monday night.
I had to remove everyone from the courtroom, including the press and their lawyers, because it was hard to do and there were arguments. This is why I had to clear the courtroom in the first place. “Sir, you are being disrespectful with your behavior. ”
When he brought the machine back in, Costello kept talking and will continue on Tuesday. The defense is trying to make Trump’s ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, seem less trustworthy.
Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to end the case before the jury makes a decision and to dismiss the charges after the prosecutors finished presenting their evidence. He didn’t make a decision right away, the request came at the end of a long and intense day. The prosecution’s main witness also admitted to stealing a lot of money from Trump’s company.
After the jury went home, lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge that the prosecutors did not prove their case and it should be stopped right away. Blanche asked the judge to not let the jury decide the case based on Mr. Cohen’s
The judge did not seem to be affected by the argument and asked the defense lawyer if he believed that the person’s testimony should not be considered by the jury at all.
“The judge replied that you said his lies cannot be proven wrong. ” “Do you really believe he can trick 12 New Yorkers into believing this lie. ”
Cohen was the most recent person to testify for the prosecutors. They are trying to show that Trump tried to hide bad news about himself and lied about his business records to cover it up, in order to influence the 2016 election illegally. The defence has said that Cohen is focused on the media and is lying because he wants revenge against Trump.
The defence asked Costello to testify because he has been an enemy and critic of Cohen since their professional relationship ended in a big way.
Costello had said he would help Cohen after his place was searched, and Cohen had to decide if he would stand up to the investigation or work with the authorities to get a lighter punishment.
Costello said that Cohen told him Trump didn’t know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.
“Michael Cohen said many times that President Trump did not know about the payments, and that he did it by himself. He said this many times,” Costello told the jury.
Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, said to the judge that the defense will not bring in any more witnesses after Costello. However, they might bring in campaign-finance expert Bradley A Smith for some questioning. They have not said for sure if Trump will testify, but it seems very likely that he will decide not to go on the stand to defend himself.
Again in court for the fourth day, Cohen said on Monday that he took money from the Trump Organization because he got a holiday bonus of $50,000 instead of the usual $150,000 in 2016.
Cohen said he gave $50,000 to a tech company to make Trump look more popular in a CNBC poll about famous business people. Cohen said he only gave the company $20,000 in cash in a bag, but then he asked Trump to pay him back for the whole amount, keeping the extra money for himself.
“Did you take things from the Trump Organization. ”
“Yes, Mr” Cohen said he did not give money back to the Trump Organization. Cohen has never been accused of taking things from Trump’s company.
Cohen is an important witness, but he is also difficult to understand. He said in court that he has told a lot of lies in the past, and he says he did it to protect Trump. Cohen went to jail for admitting he lied to Congress and a bank, and broke campaign finance laws by paying hush money. He made a lot of money by writing mean books about the old president and posting rude stuff about him on social media.
However, when Blanche questioned him, Cohen maintained that he remembered talking to Trump about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, which is the main focus of the case.
“Are you sure you remember. ” Blanche asked if Cohen remembered talking to Trump about the Daniels situation. “Definitely,” Cohen said.
More than four weeks of talking about sex, money, and Trump’s business records have been presented in court. Soon, the jury will decide if Trump is guilty of 34 counts of lying about his business records. This is the first time a former US president has faced a criminal trial.
The charges come from Trump Organization records that show payments to Cohen labeled as legal expenses. But prosecutors say these were actually reimbursements for hush money paid to Daniels.
Trump said he did not do it. His lawyers say that there was nothing illegal about the agreement with Daniels or how Cohen was given money.
“There is no crime,” Trump told the reporters when he got to the courthouse on Monday. “We had to spend money on a lawyer. ” Do you know what it is listed as. It is considered a legal cost.
Trump’s friends, including several who were with him at the courthouse on Monday, quickly took advantage of Cohen’s confession on the witness stand. Kash Patel, who used to work for Trump, told reporters that for the first time in six weeks of trial, they found a crime – Cohen took money from the Trump Organization.
“We have a person who was hurt. ” The person who was hurt is Donald J Trump,” Patel said.
Blanche asked Cohen on Monday about his first denials that Trump knew about the Daniels payment. After The Wall Street Journal said in January 2018 that Cohen had organized the payment to the porn actor over a year before that, Cohen told reporters, friends, and others that Trump didn’t know about the deal.
He didn’t change his story until the police looked through Cohen’s home, office, and other places in April 2018. Four months later, Cohen admitted to breaking campaign-finance laws and other crimes. He told the court that Trump had told him to arrange the payment to Daniels.
Cohen is usually angry, but he was mostly calm when the defence asked him tough questions about his wrongdoings in the case.
After Cohen finishes testifying, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office will probably finish presenting their case. But if Trump’s lawyers call their own witnesses, the prosecutors might get a chance to call more witnesses to respond.