Trump trial live: Defense witness Robert Costello to return to stand after being accused of ‘staring down’ judge

When Cohen finally stepped down and the prosecution rested its case, it was the defense’s turn to bring its first witness: lawyer Robert Costello, who had advised Cohen after the FBI raided his home and office in April 2018, hoping to open a “back channel” to the then-president in order to ensure Cohen did not “flip” and inform on his former boss to federal investigators.

Costello’s introduction brought about one of the tensest moments yet, when Judge Juan Merchan briefly dismissed the jury in order to angrily admonish the witness for muttering in response to his decisions.

In a lecture on “proper decorum”, Judge Merchan told Costello: “You don’t like my rulings? You don’t say ‘jeez’. You don’t roll your eyes. Do you understand that?”

Then, when the justice asked the jurors to return, he rebuked the witness again, demanding to know: “Are you staring me down right now?”

He then cleared the court entirely in order to tell him off even more sternly, declaring: “I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous.”

Here’s Alex Woodward on that shock development.

Trump’s youngest daughter Tiffany Trump was the target of an extortion plot back in 2016, according to Michael Cohen, who recalled discussing it with Ms Trump and another former witness at trial, ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.

Here’s more from Alex Woodward and Ariana Baio.

Let’s recap the action from another intense day at Manhattan Criminal Court.

First up, the final prosecution witness Michael Cohen completed his 17 hours of testimony on the stand by admitting that he had “stolen” tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization as part of his reimbursement plan with Trump to recoup the $130,000 he shelled out to Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Under cross-examination from Trump’s defense attorney on Monday, the businessman’s former attorney and one-time “fixer” testified that he pocketed $60,000 from his former boss by overstating the amount he paid a tech company that rigged online opinion polls in Trump’s favor.

He said the extra money was “like self help,” an apparent attempt to extract more money from Trump after Cohen was upset that he didn’t receive a larger annual bonus, even after paying Daniels out of his own pocket.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report from court.

Your Favourite President (TM) has been busy on social media since court wrapped yesterday, attacking the judge presiding over his hush money trial and releasing a string of attack videos going after his successor.

“Judge Juan Merchan, who has thus far been the exact Conflicted Democrat Operative his Comrades expected, has a chance to take a real step toward rehabilitating both his Reputation and the Justice System of New York by dismissing the Biden Election Interference Witch Hunt brought by Soros funded D.A. Alvin Bragg. Every serious Legal Expert and Scholar is unequivocally stating that the ‘prosecutors’ have not come close to putting on a case, THERE IS NO CRIME, which means that the right thing to do is to END THIS SCAM NOW AND FOREVERMORE. It would be a Big, Bold, Beautiful, but Highly Unexpected, yet BRILLIANT, step toward Justice in New York, and our Nation as a whole!”

“IF A PRESIDENT DOES NOT HAVE IMMUNITY, THE COURT WILL BE “OPENING THE FLOODGATES” TO PROSECUTING FORMER PRESIDENTS. AN OPPOSING HOSTILE PARTY WILL BE DOING IT FOR ANY REASON, ALL OF THE TIME!”

He’s got this folks, every angle covered.

“Tremendous, people are saying, ‘Sir, we’ve never seen a feed like it.’”

Over the last few weeks, the former president touted that he would “absolutely” testify in his criminal trial “if necessary”, adding that he would probably do so.

Alex Woodward reports on a call the defence claims is at the center of the case against Donald Trump:

Marta Moehring voted the way she prefers in Nebraska’s Republican primary Tuesday — in person, at her west Omaha polling place.

She didn’t even consider taking advantage of the state’s no-excuse mail-in ballot process. In fact, she would prefer to do away with mail-in voting altogether. She’s convinced fraudulent mailed ballots cost former President Donald Trump a second term in 2020.

“I don’t trust it in general,” Moehring, 62, said. “I don’t think they’re counted correctly.”

But now Republican officials — even, sometimes, Trump — are encouraging voters such as Moehring to cast their ballots by mail. The GOP has launched an effort to, in the words of one official, “correct the narrative” on mail voting and get those who were turned off to it by Trump to reconsider for this year’s election.