Robert Costello, the lone witness called by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers in defense of their client, was admonished by Judge Juan Merchan on Monday after he delivered outbursts in court and even tried to stare the judge down.
Breaking down his testimony on CNN, former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams said that Costello’s behavior in court did absolutely nothing to help the former president’s case.
“This was a horrible moment for the defense,” he said.
Later in the panel, Williams explained why Costello’s courtroom antics were such a seeming misstep by the defense.
“The defense does not have to present a case, it’s really the government’s burden,” he said. “So any witness the defense puts up ought to be someone that really brings something to the case or undermines a significant part of the prosecution. And what they did here was sort of waste everyone’s time by bringing a witness that didn’t really add to Michael Cohen’s credibility woes, didn’t introduce any information, didn’t rebut anything major.”
In fact, Williams argued that the only purpose Costello seemed to serve was “to annoy the person whom everybody, including the jurors, had a great deal of respect for.”
