Donald Trump’s last ditch Manhattan grand jury stunt flops; Trump witness Robert Costello melts down in front of TV cameras
Donald Trump requested that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have alleged Trump pardon dangler Robert Costello testify to the grand jury, in a last ditch attempt at discrediting key witness Michael Cohen. Bragg went along with the request, presumably because it gave him the opportunity to carve up Trump’s would-be trial defense and lock Costello into testimony that he wouldn’t be able to change later. Accordingly, Cohen announced that the DA had asked him to come back in as a rebuttal witness against Costello on Monday afternoon.
But now CNBC is reporting that after Costello’s grand jury testimony was over with, the DA didn’t even need to bother having Cohen rebut Costello’s claims. This tells us that Costello’s claims were total nonsense and of no substance.
Now Costello is standing outside the building where he testified, rambling semi-incoherently to the TV cameras about his testimony. Costello is trying to make the argument that Cohen is mentally unstable, and yet Costello’s rambling is making him sound mentally unstable.
Costello also publicly expressed disappointment that no one in the grand jury bothered to ask him for copies of the supposed evidence he’d brought with him. That should tell you all you need to know about how little impact his testimony had. It’s worth noting that Costello is Rudy Giuliani’s attorney, and now Costello is rambling to the TV cameras about conspiracy theories in the same way that Giuliani often does.
Costello is now claiming that Cohen will be brought back in to testify to the grand jury on Wednesday, but at this point we’re not inclined to take Costello at his word on anything. We’ll see what Cohen has to say once he emerges. But suffice it to say that this Costello stunt is merely going to make it harder for Trump to find a way to piece together a trial defense. Meanwhile major media outlets are reporting that Trump’s criminal indictment is expected to happen either at the end of today or on Wednesday.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report