Trump's 'defense ended on a horrible note' as witness 'insulted the jury': CNN experts
Former President Donald Trump's defense team completely dropped the ball by calling Michael Cohen's former legal adviser Robert Costello to the witness stand, where he proceeded to cause courtroom chaos and get completely impeached by his own emails, former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi explained on a CNN panel on Tuesday morning.
In doing so, he explained, Trump's team wiped the jury's doubts about Cohen's own credibility as a witness from their minds, and put that suspicion on Costello.
"Do you think the defense ultimately made a mistake by putting Robert Costello on the witness stand and having him be the final witness instead of it being Michael Cohen yesterday, acknowledging that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization?" asked anchor Kaitlan Collins.
"You hit the nail on the head," said Rossi. "Instead of focusing on Michael Cohen as a thief and a liar, they made a huge mistake."
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Trump's team completely bungled the key element of "primacy and recency," Rossi continued.
"You always start off strong, because you only get one chance at a first impression, and people always remember your last act," he said. "By calling Mr. Costello as their last witness — actually, their only witness, they had a minor one — they left with the jury the following. Michael Cohen said, I really didn't trust Mr. Costello. I essentially thought he was a little sleazy and that he was working for Giuliani and Trump, so I didn't want to give them anything that's going to hurt me in the end. So that's very understandable. And when Costello took the stand, Kaitlan, and he acted the way he did — in my 30, 35 years of practicing law as a prosecutor and a defense attorney, I've never ever seen that he insulted the judge. And frankly, Kaitlan, he insulted the jury."
"They may not have heard the sidebar, but remember ... there are two attorneys on that jury and they figured out why the judge had them leave the room and it was because of the decorum," said Rossi. "The defense ended on a horrible, horrible note, and it washed away everything they were trying to do with Michael Cohen. And here's the kicker. They actually rehabilitated Michael Cohen, because Mr. Costello did come across as a little unsavory."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
Gene Rossi says Trump's team made a "horrible mistake" with Robert Costello www.youtube.com