know the defense had a right to request that and as a grand jury heard it and so it is common in a situation like this where you would want to put on rebuttal witnesses or consider putting on rebuttal witnesses if there was some doubt or some information given that the prosecution wants to reboot and also it feels like the public is so engaged at every chapter of this even though as you point out this is not the trial this is the grand jury proceeding i wonder if optics matter as well because bob was out there speaking at a press availability about michael cohen holding up copies of a book that you know locks about him and his role as a fixer does that matter at all to the manhattan da well michael cohen was known as the man hunt and create no they know that he has the conviction for lying to congress and that he has other criminal convictions and that he is flip-flopped, right?
to clean up the mess that bob castella made at the beginning of the week? what is happening is that basically a mini trial in the grand jury, which is unusual. grand jury proceedings are usually on their own, much smaller amounts of evidence that that type of the trial. there s no opening statements, no cross examinations, they re just putting on a bare bones case to get over the hurdle of an indictment, which is a much lower standard than a trial when you have to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt. but here you re having a little bit of a new trial going on because the grand jury heard from a defense witness, which the defense had a right to request that. the grand jury heard it, and so it s kaavan for a situation where you would want to put on that rebuttal, at least consider putting on rebuttal witnesses if there is some doubt on the information given that the prosecution wants to
jump jump. exactly exactly, um, could he be reconsidering? it s possible the fact that they sort of postponed today and now we re hearing they re in session tomorrow and considering whether to call rebuttal witnesses. i mean, rebuttal witnesses should not be a thing. not that grand jury. grand jury is the easiest thing in the world for a prosecutor, and if you re worried about whether your case is going to get through a grand jury, good luck with the trial jury that part advice to alvin bragg has looked down because there ain t no water in that pool jump in just this case. it s a it s a mess. the theory to get to a felony is a mess. i mean, look, i m just reading the articles about this. how it s been laid out. it s a mess. it s a total mess. what won t be a mess. is what s going on in georgia, apparently when they got him on the phone three times, people to do things you re not supposed to do what won t be a mess are these other , more consequential cases? and that will be easier for
truly damaging information about michael cohen s credibility or conduct, what the defense team has done is given the prosecutors a golden opportunity to drill down, to investigate anything costello said and to meet the force of it with perhaps a witness that can rebut what costello said. all of that now will be diffused before there s ever a trial. i think that s a win for the prosecutors. as you say, it may very well be that they have one or two witnesses left, either affirmative witnesses or rebuttal witnesses. then they will be in a position to ask the grand jury to vote out an indictment. it really involves reading the tea leaves at this point. reporting from the new york times about what the former president has told people at mar-a-lago, told associates about how he is looking forward to a perp, he is trying to decide how to smile, the
want to resist this request for optic reasons. if they refused to put a defense witness on, that would become the whole thing. ultimately it s up to the grand jury whether they want to hear from this person. do you think they ll want to hear from costello? i think they will. the prosecutor could tell them we think this will be valuable and i i don t think they ll jove ride that. and michael cohen said he s and his attorney lanny davis will be in court and potential rebuttal witnesses. so he that s odd, too. i don t think the prosecutors should put him in by a rebuttal witness. second of all, unless they pr trump will have to listen to that to try to rebut it. and there s a question whether they can do that, having him