The stand under crossexamination when Court Resumes. So it begins another hour here i am john roberts in washington. Sandra this is going to be an interesting hour ahead. Be to consider in Court Resumes at 2 15 p. M. He oftentimes walks back and around 2 10 p. M. So we should be seeing him shortly. I am sandra smith in new york this is america reports. Trumps defense team has tried to show cohen as a untruthful and vindictive, angry he never got a job in the white house. Cohen is dented by his testimony that the payment that was made to Stormy Daniels was done at the direction of the former president. John that is not what he said when he confided to form a Legal Advisor bob costello years ago, here is What Costello told americas newsroom this morning. He kept on saying over and over again 1020 times i swear to god, bob, i dont have anything on donald trump. And then when we got into the discussion of the Stormy Daniels nda he said specifically, and i crossexamined him on this, this was my idea. John we have a team of legal and political voices to walk us through testimony this hour. Sandra first nate foy, he has the latest from right outside the courthouse in lower manhattan. Need to do we expect the defense to call any witnesses at this point . The defense is considering bringing an Expert Witness, sandra. They will talk about the parameters of that possible line of questioning at 4 00 today. Before that the crossexamination of Michael Cohen, as you mentioned, will continue in a really interesting moment right after we broke for lunch where trump attorney todd blanche Accused Cohen of lying once again under oath when the cohen claimed he alerted trump over the phone that the Stormy Daniels deal was done in late october 2016, take a look at this interaction. Todd blanche said that was a lie, you did not talk to President Trump and cohen responded im not sure thats accurate no cohen said he talked to trump through the head of security but texts between cohen and the shell or that they show cohen wanted to talk about harassing phone calls he was receiving. Also Questioning Cohen about whether or not he wanted a position in trumps white house, cohen said he wanted to be considered for white house chief of staff, but he actually wanted to be the personal attorney to the president , this is important because bob costello, the layer you mentioned that he consulted with a 2018 says cohen took care of it by himself to secure it position the white house again here is costello on americas newsroom this morning. He said specifically, and i crossexamined him on this, this was my idea. It was his idea to take care of the nda because he had been contacted by a lawyer for Stormy Daniels who said she was going to claim that donald trump had sex with her. Q and when several people have testified about how upset cohen was when he did not receive a role in the trump administration. Infect keith Keith Davidson who represented daniels testified that cohen appeared to appeared suicidal. Thats not what cohen is saying and you know they will continue asking him about that in the session. We will check in with you shortly. John lets bring in Martha Maccallum of the st story so todd wents task was to try to convince the jury that you cannot believe a word that comes out of Michael Cohens mall. Health wanted to go in that direction today . To sort of set the scene in the courtroom, you see the former president walk in, this is a very serious donald trump. This is not the donald trump you see in a rally. He is not looking around, not making eye contact with people, he clearly wants to get this over with. He is watching todd blanche as he takes the jurors through this progression of Michael Cohens history of lying to federal investigators, to congress, to his wife, at one point he says did you tell her . Did you ever tell her the reason you wanted that Home Equity Loan . So he is building this case that Michael Cohen is a liar. Cohen is trying to sort of check him every time he goes through that process. But one of the questions, i kept staring at the jurors, john and sandra. You are trying to read their minds because we can all talk about this outside of the venue of the courtroom, but really how is this landing on them . I could not but think this very laborious sometimes meandering tail that is being told by todd blanche might be losing them at some point. They seem to sort of, you know, get distracted. I mean many hours of standing there listening to this. Some of them seemed very focused and some are taking active notes, others a bit less so. Very hard to read. When they got up to take a break, they did not look at cohen, they did not look at President Trump, they just sort of focus on that door because they dont want to give away anything they are feeling. Really, todd blanche has his work from dell might cut out for him and he may need Robert Costello if indeed he becomes the Expert Witness to lay out exactly what you guys heard him laid out this morning. Sandra notes coming out of the courtroom are very helpful this morning. Of course we are not in the room and we dont have cameras in the room. That you were talking about one of the jurors one of the most attentive jurors you described a male taking many notes keeping focused on the blanch line of questioning. You noted also blanche was trying to paint this portrait of a desperate Michael Cohen. What was that line of questioning like . Clearly he is going down the road of how disappointed you were. Even your daughter expressed she was disappointed you wouldnt get a white house job, why are they doing this to you . All of this is build up to substantiate the argument that Robert Costello could make that Michael Cohen was looking for any way to get back. To ingratiate himself once again they talked about a pastor who he called and said could you please put a good word in for me with President Trump . This is a man who has blanche established later today use to talk to five or six times a day. He loved the association with then donald trump president elect donald trump but he felt himself slipping away and its important he tried to portray here. That was his motivation is blanches argument to make the Stormy Daniels situation go away. Perhaps to put it back in the good graces. Michael cohen thinks of himself as a fixer. The Designated Thug at times for donald trump that this may be not the kind of person the president wanted to be in the white house. I think that really struck a deep chord at least thats what blanche is trying to lay out here. How the jury is seeing all of this very, very difficult to tell by looking at the eyes and body language. I try to do all of this this morning. John back to bob costello what he would testify to on the stand americas newsroom this morning where he talked about a two hour meeting with Michael Cohen in 2018 where cohen appeared suicidal and thought about leaping off the roof of the regency because he couldnt face the legal troubles ahead of him. Costello suggested to cohen listen, if you have a dime you can drop on donald trump i can get you out of your legal problems by the end of the week. Listen to What Costello said. He kept saying over and over again 1020 times i swear to god, bob, i dont have anything on donald trump. I even sent him michael, think about this. Isnt it easier to cooperate against donald trump if you have truthful information then it is to kill yourself . The answer is obvious, that was his moment in time if he had something truthful to say i am willing to cooperate. But he didnt take that. John What Costello was saying regarding the nda square is absolutely with what cohen told the New York Times about the same time. He said neither the Trump Organization or the Trump Campaign was in the transaction with clifford and need to reimburse me for the payment directly or indirectly. It was lawful and not a Campaign Contribution or a Campaign Expenditure by anyone. Todd blanche i think has to make the impression on the jury was he lying then when everyone corroborates everything that he said or is he lying now . When he is the only one who is saying this . I want to draw your attention, martha, to see the former president and his legal team grantor shortly. This is when he was taking through this morning. How can you tell when youre lying and when youre not lying because you constantly change her story and you are under oath right now arent you . And he said yes. Heres former President Trump with a little wave into the room there. So how good of a job is Blanche Doing is the point and is he sometimes losing the jury with these extraordinary detailed recountings of phone conversations, all of these ways building this argument and does he need bob costello to be perhaps the only defense witness and i think i sell a a finer point on it then we have heard in the courtroom so far. So we will see. It was really interesting in your notes ahead of the courtroom this morning about Michael Cohen to be personal attorney to the present hybrid roles so i could financially provide for my family. Blanche said know you expressed frustration you did not get the job. White House Counsel job either. You then noted as you have been about the jury and their reaction to these exchanges which is so important you said the jury is mostly standing blankly ahead you are not sure blanche has their full attention here. They are a bit fidgety. And this is a big part of this because this is going to be a long line of questioning where sometimes the jury wonders where are you going with this . And is he getting their attention . Is he bringing them along here . Obviously has a very smart attorney and what he is trying to pull together i thought was very interesting this morning, he is trying to establish you lie, he says Michael Cohen, when it affects you personally. When you feel like you have to save yourself or your family. So i think he is trying to bring the jury around a say see, hes doing it again. Now he is saying that trump knew about all of this because now he needs this again and what does he want . He played these podcast entries, these recordings from his podcast, that he would be gleeful, he would be so happy if trump and his family could suffer the way Michael Cohen suffered. Out to make him so happy. You see the weave that blanche is trying to do here to show the motivation that cohen would have to be lying now about what trump knew or did not know. We will see with the jury thinks because at that moment cohen says no i did not want to work at the white house, i wanted a hybrid role. I still wanted to make money so he is defending himself at the same time. Who do they believe . Thats the big question. John according to testimony we have heard another report the only acts that cohen has to grind with the former president is the fact that the former president kind of divorced himself from cohen and cohen ended up in jail. There was no parking. Those are pretty big axes to grind. John they are. With his reputation, handed up in jail, you have to wonder when he told costello i have absolutely nothing, did he believe that then or was that before he decided to break his loyalty . And change his tune . Its very difficult because he has been on so many sides of so many stories all along the way. John i dont recall trump forcing him to evade taxes which is when he got popped for. Absolutely. John who do you blame . Martha, great to see you. Cohen we will see you at 3 00. We saw the former president enter the courtroom moments go back underway crossexamination of Michael Cohen will continue with break will be back with john for more. What i see so far as todd is being disciplined enough to ask Type Questions where cohen cant make speeches and thats a measure of success. Forced him to look like the weasel he is. Were not talking about practice . No. Were talking about cashbackin. Were talking about cashbackin. Were talking about cashbackin. 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The results are absolutely fabulous. See why so many people, including doctors, are choosing gentlecure. Call today or go to gentlecure. Com. Sandra fox news alert utah a moment ago former President Donald Trump ran train the courtroom in manhattan. His lawyers are about to resume crossexamination of Michael Cohen, Star Witness Story took another hit this week after his Legal AdvisorRobert Costello shredded his credibility in front of congress. Join us as criminal defense attorney, great to see you on the program. He is back in a courtroom we dont know if the crossexamination has been back underway yet but at this point we know the judge and parties are back and we know blanches questioning of cohen when the indictment was unsealed but go ahead and give us your take on what we have heard so far and what will happen this afternoon. Sure the critical components to Michael Cohens testimony are his credibility and his motivation. They are not mutually exclusive. They are more like a onetwo punch for the defense. The Credibility Side of course is whenever his lips are moving he is lying because he is a noted liar he has lied under oath, lied not under oath and his credibility is like one giant game of three card monte with the truth. You never know where it is. And on the other side of that you have motivation. The jury will have to ask why does he like . He is not lying because he has a gun to his head, he is not lying because he fears donald trump, he is lying because he wants donald trump behind bars. He is ill motivated. He wants harm to come to donald trump. With that kind of onetwo punch, i dont see how the jury can put any stock in his testimony at all. If you exclude Michael Cohen from this entire sham of a trial, where does that leave the jury . Only one thing and the only one i can conclude there is no crime here. John we are wondering about a couple of potential witnesses here. For the defense will be costello who they eviscerated what he was saying and as the personal attorney to cohen had a lot of time with him and what his thinking is and then whether or not they will call Adam Weisel Berg the cfo who apparently cut the Retainer Deal with cohen and is the only other person besides cohen according to his tail who would know where the bodies are buried in this particular case but i was talking to jim trusty last hour and trustee said look, he is in jail because he wouldnt flip on trump erie it and weisselbergh could come in and say everything he is saying is a load of you know what and that didnt happen. I feel like Neither Party needs allen weisselberg. First i dont like the objects come i dont want him being paraded in front of this jury in an orange jumpsuit. Even though it has nothing to