An attorney who formerly represented Donald Trump’s onetime personal lawyer Michael Cohen told House lawmakers Wednesday Cohen lied about “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels — having previously insisted the 45th president was not involved in the transaction.
Robert Costello, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor, revealed to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that key points of Cohen’s recent testimony against Trump in Manhattan Criminal Court were false.
Federal prosecutors charged Cohen in 2018 with violating federal campaign finance law by making the $130,000 payment to Daniels, and he later was sentenced to three years in prison for that crime, as well as tax evasion and making false statements to a bank.
The legal jeopardy pushed Cohen to the brink of suicide, but Costello told committee members his then-client insisted at least 10 times: “I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.”
Cohen later waived his attorney-client privilege, allowing Costello to share the damning details of their talks.
Costello emphasized that prosecutors were asking for “truthful information that would implicate Donald Trump” to “get [Cohen] out his legal trouble by the end of the week — if he cooperated against Donald Trump.”
Cohen testified earlier this week as a witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Trump, 77, who faces 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records to conceal his reimbursement of Cohen for the Daniels payment.
Those payments occurred in 2017, but prosecutors have argued the case constituted a “criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election.”
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Costello told subcommittee members he had convinced Cohen to cooperate after his client had been “seriously contemplating jumping off” the roof of the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, though Costello claimed he was skeptical of the “hush money” allegations from the start.
Cohen later told him he had concocted the “catch and kill” scheme to hide Daniels’ story that she had engaged in an affair years earlier with the married then-candidate, which “would be embarrassing for Trump, and especially Melania, so he decided to take care of it himself.”
Costello added that his former client’s “motivation” for the scheme later “became obvious” when he learned that Cohen expected to be named Trump’s White House chief of staff — or even attorney general.
“Cohen then explained that, for that reason, he negotiated the sum of $130,000 in exchange for the [non-disclosure agreement with Daniels],” Costello said. “When asked if Trump had any knowledge of this, Cohen told me no. When asked whether Cohen got the $130,000 from Trump or any Trump entity or friend, Cohen again said no.”
Cohen testified in court this week that he took out a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) loan to buy Daniels’ silence — and keep his own wife in the dark about the amount.
But the disgraced former attorney added under direct examination that Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg agreed to reimburse him $420,000, and Trump had been made aware of the money.
Cohen also denied that he informed Costello — who testified before the Manhattan grand jury that indicted Trump — about the former president’s knowledge of the payment.
Cohen testified this week he kept that information from Costello out of fear that the lawyer would “immediately run back” to another of his then-clients — Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and personal lawyer to Trump — to share that information.
Costello said Wednesday the whole of Cohen’s testimony constituted a “revenge tour” against Trump after Cohen lost his law license and spent a year in federal prison before serving out the rest of his sentence in home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Michael Cohen is simply not a credible man,” Costello concluded.
Cohen took the witness stand again Thursday for cross-examination from attorneys representing the former president.