Jurors in Donald Trump's hush-money trial were shown a series of damning emails showing Rudy Giuliani-linked lawyer Robert Costello pressuring Michael Cohen to remain loyal to the former president while the one-time 'fixer' is under federal investigation was standing.
In April 2018, Cohen's office and home were raided by the FBI and his cellphones and documents were seized in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
After the raid, Costello suggested that Cohen should retain him as counsel, in what Cohen previously testified was part of a "pressure campaign" to keep him close to Trump and prevent him from "turning" on him.
On Tuesday, Costello returned to the witness stand as the final witness for Trump's defense - and the final witness of the historic trial - just hours after he was nearly thrown off the witness stand altogether for rolling his eyes at the judge.
Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Costello was confronted with emails in which he had called on Cohen to "get on the same page" and reminded him that he has "friends in high places."
In May 2018, Costello emailed his partner saying, "Our problem is getting Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following Giuliani's or the president's instructions."
A month later, on June 22, 2018 - two months before Cohen reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors - Mr. Costello emailed an aide to complain that Cohen "continues to slow us and the president down."
"Is he completely crazy?" Mr. Costello wrote. "What should I say to this? He is playing with the most powerful man in the world."
"That email certainly speaks for itself, doesn't it, Mr. Costello?" asked Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger.
"Yes, that's right," Costello replied.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records for a series of invoices and checks to Cohen in 2017, reimbursing a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors allege that Trump unlawfully concealed potentially politically damaging information about his affairs to boost his chances of victory.
He has pleaded not guilty and denies having sex with Ms Daniels.
Cohen - who at the time was President Trump's personal lawyer during the investigation - previously testified against whom and emails shown in court showed an apparent attempt by Mr Costello to create a "back channel" of communications between him , through Mr. Giuliani, to open with Mr. Trump.
In his testimony last week, Cohen described what he said were Costello's "sketchy" attempts to force him into his service.
"This is part of the pressure campaign: 'Everyone is lying to you, that you are still considered, the president still supports you, don't speak, don't listen to what the journalists or anyone says, and keep a straight face. ," Cohen said last week. "'Don't turn around, don't cooperate.'"
Cohen didn't trust him, he said, but he still remained "loyal to Mr. Trump."
After conversations with his family, and what he described as a sense of obligation to his wife and children and "to the country," Cohen said he came to the realization: "I have decided that I was no longer going to lie for President Trump." ."
He ultimately pleaded guilty in August 2018 to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress.
During testimony, Costello repeatedly denied pressuring Cohen to do anything, claiming he was merely treating him as a client with his best interests in mind and not seeking an opportunity to represent him. Cohen never signed a retainer agreement and never considered Costello his attorney.
Mr. Costello claimed that he was just trying "to get everyone on the same page because Cohen had complained incessantly, quite frankly, that Giuliani was making statements in the press that Cohen disagreed with."
"I encouraged Michael Cohen to voice all his complaints so I could take them to Giuliani and have them addressed, whatever they were," he said.
He called the question of whether he agreed to testify before Congress to "intimidate" Cohen "ridiculous."
During a House Republican committee hearing last week, Costello called Cohen "absolutely manic."
"He put on quite a show," Mr. Costello testified Monday, describing a first meeting with Cohen in 2018. "He explained to us two nights earlier that he was on the roof of the Regency hotel and that he was going to jump off and kill himself."
On Monday, shortly after Costello took the stand, New York Judge Juan Merchan scolded the lawyer for rolling his eyes, saying "ridiculous" and "jeez" and sighing heavily during objections in his testimony.
'You don't like my statements? You don't say 'jeez,'" he said. "You don't roll your eyes. Do you understand?"
As he prepared to bring the jury back in, he fired one last shot at Mr. Costello: "Are you staring at me? Clear the courtroom."
With only lawyers and Trump's entourage in the courtroom, the judge warned that Costello's behavior could bring him into contempt of court.
"If you try to stare at me one more time, I will remove you from the witness stand," he said.
The defense stands by its position - and Trump will not testify
Mr Costello was the second - and final - witness called by the former president's defense team.
After calling 19 witnesses over the past six weeks, Manhattan prosecutors rested their case Monday.
Defense lawyers introduced just two witnesses, including Mr Costello, and closed their case on Tuesday morning.
Mr. Trump - who repeatedly suggested he would take the stand in his defense, falsely claiming the ban on doing so - failed to testify.
The closing arguments of both sides will begin on May 28.
Judge Merchan will then instruct the jury before deliberations begin.
A ruling could be made as early as May 29.
During one of his news conferences Tuesday from the hallway outside the courtroom, steps from the men's room, Trump complained that the trial was keeping him from his campaign schedule.
'I would like to campaign now. But again, I'm going to have to be here in court for almost five weeks," he said. 'They have no case. There is no crime. ... It's a kangaroo field. I've never seen anything like it."
