New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said Robert Costello’s behavior in former President Trump’s hush money case reinforced “mobby” behavior in the former president’s circles.
Haberman joined a CNN panel Tuesday, where they discussed the transcript released by the court from when Costello, a former legal adviser to ex-Trump fixer Michael Cohen, and the judge got into a disagreement.
Haberman argued that Costello’s behavior on the stand reinforced “part of what prosecutors are arguing here, which is that there is a sort of mobby aspect to this case and to a lot of the behavior by the Trump people.”
“It just doesn’t seem to help the defense,” she said in comments highlighted by Mediaite.
Just minutes after Costello took the witness stand Monday in Trump’s criminal case, Judge Juan Merchan asked the jurors to leave the courtroom so he could reprimand Costello over his behavior.
They shared a tense moment, and reporters were also asked to leave the courtroom. Merchan told Costello that his behavior was “contemptuous” and said he would remove him from the stand if he tried to “stare me down one more time.”
Costello reportedly asked if he could say something in response and Merchan said no because “this is not a conversation.”
Haberman argued that Costello’s time on the witness stand was not a good look for the defense and why many people in Trump’s world said calling him as a witness would be a risk.
She said that in the former president’s trial, which he has a gag order for, she would have expected Trump to draw outrage from Merchan. For Costello to make Merchan this angry is not what she expected, but it is also “not entirely surprising because anybody who has dealt with Bob Costello knows that he can be a wild card.”
