Merchan says the jury will return next Tuesday for summations

This morning’s testimony also illustrates why calling Costello as a witness was always a double-edged sword. The defense team called him because he undermines Cohen’s credibility, by repeating Cohen’s alleged admission that he had “nothing” on Trump.

Yet, today, the prosecution has effectively painted him as working to keep Cohen quiet and then being angry when he failed — using his own emails against him.

Reporting from Manhattan criminal court

That was a masterclass in effective cross. Not only did Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger use Costello’s own emails against him brilliantly, but she kept calling back to his statement yesterday that an email spoke for itself —making his responses this morning seem less credible.

In an email to his law partner Jeff Citron, Costello wrote, “What should I say to this asshole? He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet.” 

Asked whether this email speaks for itself, Costello agreed.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger entered into evidence an email that Costello wrote to Cohen.

“You are making a very big mistake if you believe the stories these ‘journalists’ are writing about you," Costello wrote. "They want you to cave. They want you to fail. They do not want you to persevere and succeed. If you really believe you are not being supported properly by your former boss, then you should make your opinion known.”

Hoffinger displayed an email showing that Costello told his law partner Jeff Citron that their goal was to get "Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the president."

"In my opinion," Costello wrote in the email, "this is the clear & correct strategy."

Cohen, in his testimony, accused Costello and Trump's campaign of trying to exert a pressure campaign to get him to respond as they wished.

Already, Costello is being difficult with his testimony as he answers questions from prosecutor Susan Hoffinger — only making himself more dislikable to the jury.

Costello is being impeached by exhibit after exhibit. It feels like a waste of energy to quibble with Hoffinger on these emails as they speak for themselves and don't require his added remarks and rebuffs.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked Robert Costello if he was very close to Rudy Giuliani and had known him for 50 years.

Costello said yes, he's known Giuliani for years and said Giuliani attended his wedding.

Giuliani has been a close Trump ally for several years, including serving as his personal attorney. The former New York City mayor has become central to Trump's legal woes, including being indicted in Georgia on charges related to the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Speaking to reporters before entering the courtroom on Day 20 of the hush money trial, Trump again griped that he would rather be campaigning instead of “sitting in an ice box all day” for almost five weeks and added that his team would be resting their case "pretty quickly."

After listing several conservative legal scholars who echoed his assertion that he did not commit wrongdoing, the former president blasted the hush money trial as a “kangaroo court,” said he hopes the appellate division “will take care” of the legal battles he’s facing and accused Judge Juan Merchan without evidence of being “highly conflicted.”

Trump insisted that his lawyers have presented a “phenomenal case” in the hush money trial and that "we’ve won the case by any standard.”

“Any other judge would’ve thrown this case out," he said.

Hoffinger started her cross-examination of Costello with a series of questions about emails he provided to the district attorney's office — including one message from Cohen in which he told Costello to stop contacting him.

“Please cease contacting me as you do not and have never represented me in this or any matter," Cohen wrote, according to the exhibit displayed to the courtroom.

Court has begun for the day with Costello set to return to the stand.

Here are Trump's guests today in court:

• Donald Trump Jr.
• Former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker
• Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
• Sen. Eric Schmitt
• Rep. Daniel Webster
• Rep. Dan Meuser
• Rep. Ronny Jackson

Trump has been calling the politicians who make the pilgrimage to stand behind him in the New York City court where he is on trial his “surrogates” — as they push the lines of personal attacks that he has been barred from making because of a gag order.

The coordination and organization between Trump and those supporters have stoked questions about whether the remarks by the cast of Republicans amount to a violation of Trump’s gag order. But legal experts say that it’s difficult for prosecutors to argue a violation has occurred when Trump isn’t the one doing the talking and that, even if they were successful, it might trigger a consequence they’re trying to avoid: sending Trump to jail.

Read the full story here.

Dayna Perry, Cohen's lawyer, said she felt “relieved and exhausted but good” in her first interview after her client’s testimony in the Trump hush money trial concluded.

In response to Merchan’s excoriation of Robert Costello’s grumblings during his testimony, Perry said she and her client had left the courthouse by the time Costello took the stand but argued that Costello’s behavior underscores Cohen’s testimony about his distrust in Costello.

“And so, as Judge Juan Merchan apparently said at sidebar, the behavior bordered on 'contemptuous,' a legal term, and I think not -- not overly surprising given what we heard from the witness stand,” Perry said.

Pressed by Jen Psaki about whether she regrets Cohen waiving his attorney-client privilege when it comes to Costello, Perry said she doesn’t think there were “any blows that landed” because her client testified about the true nature of their relationship and “why he stayed at arm's length” from Costello.