Trump-Manhattan DA case: Bob Costello testifies to grand jury, says Michael Cohen is a ‘serial liar’
Trump-Manhattan DA case: Bob Costello testifies to grand jury, says Michael Cohen is a ‘serial liar’
Michael Cohen slammed Costello, and told Fox News Digital that payments to Stormy Daniels were ‘done at the direction of’ Trump
Jonathan Turley: Trump indictment is a ‘weaponization’ of the criminal justice system for political reasons
Robert Costello, the former legal advisor to ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen, appeared before the grand jury in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into former President Trump Monday, and testified that Cohen is a “serial liar.”
Costello testified before the grand jury for more than two hours Monday, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg considers bringing charges against former President Trump.
Those possible charges stem from the $130,000 hush-money payment that then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
FILE PHOTO: Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, leaves his apartment to report to prison in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 6, 2019. (REUTERS/Jeenah Moon TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY/File Photo)
Costello said he testified to the grand jury Monday that Trump did not know about the payments made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels.
Costello, speaking to reporters in front of his Manhattan office after his testimony Monday, slammed Cohen as a liar.
“There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Michael Cohen has great difficulty telling the truth,” Costello said. “He is, after all a convicted perjurer, and our track record with Mr. Cohen convinced us that he was a serial liar.”
In this Dec. 12, 2020, file photo, President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before boarding Marine One. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
“As might be expected, Mr. Cohen’s lies were always uttered in a way that was beneficial to himself,” Costello explained. “When it was in Mr. Cohen’s personal self-interest, he was capable of telling the truth, but those occasions were few and far between.”
Michael Cohen, in a statement to Fox News Digital, responding to Costello’s comments made during his press conference said: “IF Bob Costello’s comments were any more fantastical, he would be a bestselling fiction author.”
“It is important to note, I never slept with Stormy, I stated years ago that the payment was done at the direction of, in coordination with and for the benefit of Donald,” Cohen told Fox News Digital. “Truth is truth and the documents in the possession of the DANY demonstrate this.”
