Former advisor for Michael Cohen, Bob Costello, pushed back against Cohen’s testimony Thursday on Fox News, saying the key witness told him he didn’t have “anything” on former President Donald Trump.
Costello appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to discuss Cohen’s testimony in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s trial against former President Donald Trump for allegedly falsifying business records. Fox host Laura Ingraham began by re-reading some of Cohen’s answers during his cross-examination Thursday, in which he stated that he didn’t “recall” telling Cohen he didn’t have anything on Trump. (RELATED: Trump’s Attorney Made Swiss Cheese Out Of Michael Cohen’s Testimony, Raising Questions Of Perjury)
“[It was a] very crucial moment in his life, he was thinking about killing himself. We made it clear to him that there was a way to solve his problem if he had truthful information about Donald Trump because that’s clearly where the southern district was going. Then, I told him if that’s the case, I can get you out of your legal problems by the end of the week. Every time I brought it up, he said, ‘I swear to god, Bob’ — this is a quote — ‘I swear to god, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,'” Costello stated.
“But I kept on coming back to it to make sure that he knew this was the way out, if he wanted it and if he had truthful information. The bottom line is he didn’t have truthful information. He kept on saying during that same meeting he would pound his fist on the table, point his finger at Jeff Citron and myself and he would say, ‘Guys, I want you to know, I will do whatever the f— I have to do. I will never spend one day in jail.’ Well, he spent more than one day in jail and he blames Donald Trump for that.”
Costello continued to state that Cohen told him that Trump had nothing to do with the $130,000 transaction, noting it was all his idea because he allegedly didn’t want Melania Trump to be embarrassed. However, Costello questioned why Cohen would “take care of something like that,” to which he said the former attorney revealed it was used as a leverage.
“During later conversations, Michael revealed that he was very annoyed at the fact that when Trump got elected the entire inner circle went from New York down to Washington, D.C. except for one person, our friend Michael Cohen. They left him behind. It was clear that he was blaming Jared and Ivanka because he kept on bad-mouthing them although he didn’t specifically say it was their fault that I didn’t go to Washington. But I said to him one time I said, ‘Michael, what do you think would have happened if you went to Washington? What job were you looking for?’ Believe it or not, he said, ‘Oh, I think I could have been attorney general of the United States. I swear to God, or at least chief of staff to the president.'”
“I mean I looked at the guy and I thought, ‘Te’s delusional. This guy has no sense of his self-worth or lack thereof,'” Costello continued. “But doing this payment and taking care of this was his way of getting himself back into the good graces of Donald Trump because he could then go to Trump afterwards and say, ‘Boss’ — that’s what he called him — ‘You could’ve had a big embarrassing problem, but I, Michael Cohen, took care of it.’ That’s what he was doing.”
This week, defense attorney Todd Blanche began his cross-examination on Michael Cohen, who claims Trump not only directed him to make a nondisclosure agreement to porn star Stormy Daniels but allegedly agreed to have the plan reimbursed through falsifying business records. Cohen has had a history of lying under oath, as he pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to Congress and said he allegedly lied under oath to a federal judge while pleading guilty to tax evasion in 2018.