Its now 4 00 in new york. This Morning A Key chapter until the first ever criminal trial of an american expresident came to a close. The Testimony Phase of the people of the great state of new york vermont vs. Donald trump is over after the defense rested its case and trump in the end did not testify. Although just a few weeks ago, he said this, quote, im testifying. I tell the truth. Whatever that means. Happening right now in court, prosecutors and trumps Defense Attorneys are discussing the instructions that the judge will give to the jury. Its incredibly important. Where donald trump faces 34 Felony Charges for falsifying Business Records in order to conceal another crime. Well keep you posted on all of the updates out of those proceedings. We turn to the dramatic events this morning in court. Team trump resting its case, one was a paralegal and the other was the attorney robert cost tell la lo. Whatever credibility he had left after his outburst in court, the ones that resulted in the judge clearing the courtroom to admonish him, whatever remained was ripped to sleds in a few moments during crossexamination this morning by prosecutors. With jurors reportedly paying close attention, the das office showed emails written by costello himself that clearly show that he worked to manipulate Michael Cohen, even as he claimed to be his lawyer. He wrote in an email to his partner that they needed to get, quote, Michael Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from giuliani or the president. In my opinion, this is the clear and correct strategy. Then the prosecutor threw his own words tobacco in his face from inside the courthouse. As you said yesterday, the email speaks for itself, krkt . Costellos reply, quote, sometimes. Prosecutors also entered into evidence. From this attorney to Michael Cohen that read, quote, youre making a a very big mistake. If you believe the stories these journalists are writing about you, they want you to cave. They want you to fail. They do not want you to persevere and succeed. If you really believe youre not being supported properly by your former boss, then you should make your opinion known. Then theres more. The das office showed an email to his own partner that read, quote, Tune Into Cnn and see how they are playing this up. He has to know this. He just continues to slow play us and the president. He was playing with the most powerful man on the planet. No wonder he didnt hire him. I was surprised that Michael Cohen is the one that puts distance between himself ask this lawyer. Youll recall he testified last week to this. Quote,s there was something really sketchy and wrong about him. Now all of this, this whole Testimony Phase of the Trump Election InterferenceHush Money Trial coming to an end with a gamble gone wrong by team trump is where we begin today with some of our favorite reporters and friends with us at the table. Former top prosecutor at the Department Of Justice msnbc analyst andrew weissman. Susan craig is back with us. Special correspondent for the Hollywood ReporterLockland Cartwright join us. And special guest correspondent Vaughn Hillyard has made his way from the courthouse to be with us onset. I want to show you guys, because you have constantly remined minded me theres some able attorneys sitting at trumps table. The costello thing seems like a debacle to me. I speak as someone thats been picked to sit on a jury. But this is what fox news was saying about the kill shot that this costello character could deliver. Quite frankly, costello is a kill shot witness. I think trump should put him on as a witness. Michael cohen didnt already totally destroy the prosecution, theres one potential witness. But there is one who could deal the final blow, perhaps, former cohen Legal Adviser unofficially bob costello. Did they want him to implode . What did they want . Lets start with you dont know how a jury is going to think of this. Im going to give my opinion as somebody who has litigated. I dont know how its playing to the jury. There are things that didnt make any sense. I have talked about understanding why you give a hard cross to Stormy Daniels, whose evidence it doesnt matter whether you believe or the not, but dont Do A Hard Cross On David Pecker and hope hicks. Robert costello, if youre the prosecution, you had to be going, thank you. I think he did provide a kill shot, but not in the way that fox news intended. This was devastating evidence. It was an exhibit to exactly what Michael Cohen had said was going on. It is so mob. It is exactly what happens in mob cases where you have lawyers sent in to find out are you cooperating, we really represent the boss, thats who we really are doing. Thats what the jury could conclude. The witness said thats not true. The problem for him is youre reading from its In Black And White. And ichael cohen said, i didnt trust him. I thought essentially everything was going to get passed up to the president. So again, i try to say this at least once every hour. We have no idea how the jury has received any of this, but if this is an exercise to relatively, to Michael Cohen, donald trump, the guy on trial or me, cost tell points it back to donald trump. You thought the hard part is ending the case with Michael Cohen. That was a pretty bold move. Usually you sandwich him with other stuff and end with a more innocuous website. Here are some records. That issue was solved by the defense putting on their first witness who was a paralegal who said, you know what, what todd blanche told you and stretched the truth about the 75 calls, that was wrong. Im not going to be a fall guy for that. That was a little appetizer to the real issue, Which Costello got on and it was such a huge mistake. Plus he had been in the grand jury a year before. The prosecution knew what he was going to say. They had a year to prepare for this. And if you want to see really good lawyering, susans crossexamination was masterful. Were going to read it. This is what happened. Mr. Cohen, this is from cohens testimony. Did you ever tell the truth to mr. Costello about Donald Trumps involvement in amis purchase of Karen Mcdougals story to prevent that from coming out before the direction to you paying Stormy Daniels. Was he in possession of the truth. Why did you not tell him the truth about trumps involvement in those matters. Cohen, this is on direct. I didnt trust him meaning costello. I was still remaining loyal to trump. Question, did you believe if he told him the truth he would tell them that to someone . Cohen, yes. I believed based upon all our conversations he would immediately run back to giuliani and our communication would be divulged to President Trump. So this is yesterday when they cleared the courthouse. We didnt know when we were all here together yesterday what had happened. It wasnt sealed so it was res leased in the transcript. The judge, okay. So when theres a witness opt the stand, if you dont like my ruling, you dont say, jeez, and you dont say strike it, because im the only one that can strike testimony in the courtroom. Do you understand that . Costello, i understand. Okay. Then if you dont like my ruling, you dont give me side eye and roll your eyes. Do you understand that . I understand that. I understand what youre saying. The judge, okay, thank you. Lets get the jury back. Are you staring me down right now . Costello, no, im just wondering how. The judge, clear the courtroom. Let the record reflect that its now five after four, im putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, i will remove you from the stand. I will strike his entire testimony, do you understand that . Yes, i understand. The judge, listen to the question and answer the question. Can i Say Something please . The judge, no, no, this is not a conversation. Costello, okay. So that was yesterday. And then today they bring the prosecution back to its strongest witness documents. It was really going through those emails was incredibly powerful. At a certain point if it looks like a rat and walks like a rat, it is a rat. Thats exactly how he came across in the courtroom once those emails were read out. They were incredibly powerful. His cross was really masterful. She kept it right locked on him tight. I thought it was efficient when the jury probably appreciated that. I thought all of that was smart. I just am still marvelled by the fact that from their own discussions and when they are processing cohen, they really landed some shots. So if we just think about that, On The Last Day of his testimony, he admitted from stealing from the Trump Organization so hes admitted to stealing, hes mitted to lying. Instead of letting that linger with the jury, they let this happen. Now the jury is fwoen for a week and the last testimony in their mind is costello. Its really something. Its costello playing a role that anyone that has seen a mob movie knows who this character in the mob movie is. This is the guy saying, if youre mad at the boss, Say Something now or forever hold your peace. This is the last guy that talks to you before you end up whacked. And Robert Costello was there and i was in court yesterday and today. He was there to undermine Michael Cohens credibility. The only person whose credibility he undermined was his own. The fact that that is the main Defense Witness and the only real Defense Witness, and the witness that the jury will leave now for a week having seen is just extraordinary. Its a selfinflicted wound. Im amazed that they thought this was going to be a play by putting him on the stand. And it was all the mob language. We saw it In Black And White where he used the word ahole and said hes playing with the most powerful man on the planet. That other response where our issue is to get him on the same page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Rudy Giuliani or the president. S it was extraordinary. The appearance. It felt like it was a clientdirected witness. I cant see the lawyers who are some capable lawyers were like, lets get bob costello on the stand this week. It felt like they wanted to take one more run at Michael Cohen. Not they, donald trump wanted to take one more run. And the problem is this is about a coverup. What costellos emails do is implicate donald trump in the coverup. Last week, i was in the courtroom for the part where Michael Cohen was directly talking about his relationship with Robert Costello. I took this in my notes at the time. I was marked by how often he was looking directly at the jurors in the jury box as he was describing his relationship. A the lot of his other testimony he was going back and forth with todd blanche, but that particular moment, he kept looking at them as he tribed Robert Costello and the back channel emails to Rudy Giuliani and his client donald trump is covert. So it was a week ago he was telling the jurors about this weird relationship that he felt. That guy comes on to the stand and that email, in which hes telling his law partner that this guy is an ahole and doesnt understand who he is messing with. These are two version of events. And also to the degree that our analysis is remotely tracking with how the jury experienced 20 days of testimony. It totally reverses the momentum to the degree that blanche in impugning trump, cohens memory of one call on the 24th, to the degree that was the last thing in their minds, they have a week before they are back in this Courthouse Listening to anyone say anything about anybody. Now the lasting memory is of this one witness that trump had coming up, doing something that resulted in them being seated and kicked out two times they had to leave because of this witness. Hay may not know why, but they had to leave because of something he did to the judge. Thats what they learned about this witness yesterday. And today they were reminded of his emails where he puts the whole thing back on trump. Because you are making the suggestion by bringing on a Defense Witness, and i respect not coming from a legal background that sometimes defense teams dont bring witnesses. They say the prosecution didnt make their case. Thats not what happened here. The defense did. They told this jury that we have one man and this man is really important. Hes going to crush this case. That one man is not the defendant, donald trump, who didnt take the stand. He could have said, all of this is hogwash. None of this is true. Michael cohen didnt tell me anything. Instead, they brought one man who is essentially reiterating weird conversations. So this is just one of those moments here where Robert Costello didnt quash any questions about a Trump Tower Meeting, about the checks, he quashed none of those questions. He knew nothing about the events of 2016. Thats the best they had is somebody that could talk about the events of the middle of 2018. And a close read of those emails that were read for a second time to the jury on the cross is that they are about the two things this case hinges around. The Press Coverage, trump is watching the Press Coverage of cohen. They are obsessed with the media they pretend to loathe, and about staying loyal to the boss about about the time. Highly impressive. So he was signaling to the main Defense Witness that youre doing well. Its maybe it did land with the jury. We did not know. The idea that having those emails read in front of of the jury before the jury leaves for seven days, let me read some of it. He started by setting the scene about cohen not hiring costello pap she walked the jury through a massive paper trail. The sooerz of nail mails that Paint A Picture to back off and costello continuing to speak sometimes in code, sometimes not about rudy and trump back channels. It kicked off with the email from Michael Cohen to costello and letting him know in no uncenter terms that he hired someone else. Gentlemen, cease contacting me and you do not and have never represented me in this or any matter. Trying to establish that he dangled how close he was to rudy and how useful that could be to michael. Asked him about this email from costello to michael. Quote, im sure you saw the news that rudy is joining the trump legal team. I told you my relationship with rudy could be very useful to you. This is when rudy joins him to rep him and mueller. Exactly. Just to the point you were discussing. It is very often better for the defense to do nothing than to put on a witness who implodes. The defense doesnt have to do anything, and resting on that instruction, jurors take that seriously. And saying the defense actually has a defense they want us to consider. It supports the prosecution. Its a really bad move. This strikes me as clearly it is like donald trump reducts of the e. Jean carroll case. You know what, theres a reason we lost that first trial. I can do brt. I can do better 85 million instead of 5 million. And its the idea that he couldnt be talked out of. Theres no way one of the Defense Lawyers and i have a great idea. Were going to end with Robert Costello. I think she knows better. This is one also just remember Robert Costello volunteered to go in the grand jury a year ago. So its not like the prosecution didnt know exactly what he was going to say and loaded and they shot aer bear. Again, this is the email. This is the lasting part of the story the jury has is at least for seven days. Hofen engineer asking about this email he sent to his partner. All the more reason for cohen to hire me because of my connection to giuliani, which i mentioned in the meeting. He asked costello about an email is sent to michael. I just spoke to Rudy Giuliani. I told him i was on your team. Rudy was thrilled and said this could not be a better situation for the president or you. He sdd me if it was okay to call the president and i said fine. The last thing they hear is literally closing the circuit on donald trump as the Chief Mice Tro of the coverup. He took a massive bucket. Thats whats happening here. There was a huge bonfire in that courtroom. Its due to the Defense Calling bob costello. What do they do now . Pray . I dont know. Thats their best shot. I dont know. Its going to come down to the closings. Its hearing some of those instructions or the debate about the instructions on the way here. This is not in trumps favor.